The Disappearance Of Big Tony

The Disappearance of Big Tony

happyhugo

 Romance, Mystery

31,611 words

Copyright (c) 03/07/10

A Brattleboro, Vt Tale 

Readers score  8.03

Big Tony disappeared twenty years ago.  What
happened to him?  His daughter comes to Vermont
looking for him as well as some assets that may have
disappeared with him at the same time. A little mystery,
a little drama and quite a bit of love.

Chapter One

“Mr. Jones, my name is Miss Michaels.  I understand you have a room for rent.”

“That is correct, and it is still available.”

“Would you tell me a little about the room and where you are located?”

“It is a very large room.  18 by 22 feet. South facing and well heated.  You do understand you have kitchen privileges, don’t you? I mean you would have to take your meals here unless you drive the four miles into town every meal.”

“The kitchen privileges are very important because I don’t have a vehicle and I don’t go out often.  I do have a California driver’s license.  I illustrate children’s books for income.   Umm, do I need bedding?  I’ve never been in this position to have to rent before.”

“There are sheets in a chest and some blankets in a trunk.  They would need airing out.  I’ve never rented a room out before so---ah---I guess what I’m trying to say, I would need two months’ room rent in advance.”

“You advertised this for $125 a week or $450 a month.  I would certainly pay by the month.  Would you give me directions on how to get to your place?  I will have to get a cab to transport me.”

“Where are you now?” I knew it was the middle of the afternoon and no cabby would come out here this time of year anyway.

“I’m at the bus station here in Brattleboro.”

“I’ll pick you up in 45 minutes if you want to wait that long.  The grocery store I use is on the same street and I have to get some things.”

“You are so kind, Mr. Jones.  I will expect you.”

After I hung up, I decided maybe my new roomer might want something at the store so I would go directly to the bus station.

I had no idea what this woman who had rented a room from me sight unseen would be like.  She seemed pleasant over the phone.  I hoped she was as pleasant when I met her.  I didn’t really hurry as she wouldn’t be going anywhere.  I drove up to the station and I saw this very tall woman come down the steps and stand by several large suitcases. She stood there patiently as I pulled up. She had on a full winter coat and a Tyrolean style hat. The hat was pulled down to her eyes and she had a scarf almost covering her lips.  I smiled to myself, wondering if she was wearing leather britches and suspenders.

“Mr. Jones, thank you for coming for me.  These bags are mine. I’m glad you have a van.  I would have had to argue with a cab driver about fare, they are so heavy.”  I opened the hatch door and the bags filled the cargo space between the seat and the door. She stood there clutching a hard case much like those that repairmen use to service equipment.  I went to take it from her hand, but she said she would keep it with her.

I didn’t realize what a large person she was until I got close to her.  I am six-feet, three-inches tall and she was nearly my height.  I held the passenger door open and she gathered her coat around her and slid into the seat. I caught just a glimpse of her legs as she swung in.  They were long, of course, but even as quick as my glance was, I noted how smooth and fine skinned she was. I was startled when she readjusted her hat and removed the scarf, but made no comment.

“I didn’t get your first name, Miss Michaels.”

“It is Chastity.  You can call me Chazzy.  Most everyone I know calls me that. You said you were going to the grocery.  I have a list if you would be kind enough to pick up these few items.”  I wondered if I was going to always do her bidding.  Too early to argue about it yet.

There was a fact I was aware of that I didn’t think she knew.  I had seen Chazzy twenty years ago.  It was at the Williamsville swimming hole not many miles distant from my home. A place for kids and grownups alike to swim.  I was nine at the time and I surmised this girl swimming with her friends was a year older than me.  At the time she was tall for ten years, but not overly so. I remembered the girl wasn’t what you would call ugly, but she certainly wasn’t pretty. At the time I didn’t speak to her, because she was summer people. 

The growth spurt that came later hadn’t done that much for her facial features either. Now she had heavy dark eyebrows, an overly big nose and excessively large lips. The lips barely covered her teeth which were crooked, uneven and protruded.  Also her lower jaw receded and there was little apparent chin. 

I  knew where her folks lived at the time I had seen her years ago. My father sometimes went there to do some work for Big Tony, the owner. Dad told me at the time I was never to go near there.  He never said why, and I never did, maybe because he was so serious about it.

The place was only about three miles from where she would be living with me now and still carried the name of the Smith place.  Then something came unbidden into my mind.  Her name at the time was Chastity Michaels Smith.  I had seen it written on her bicycle. Why had she dropped her last name? A little mystery here. 

When we reached the store she handed me a $100 bill.  “That should cover what I need. You do have a refrigerator and a freezer don’t you? If it is more, I’ll reimburse you. I’d go in, but I have had a long journey and am very tired.  I do thank you, though.” I surmised she didn’t want to face the public.  I can’t say that I blamed her.

When I reached the inside, I paused to see what she had put down for groceries.  She had fresh fruit and vegetables.  The fruit was in multiples of two, so I guess she wanted enough on hand for two days.  The vegetables were hearty.  Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, squash, turnip (rutabagas) and onions. Not too many leafy ones.  She specified how many pounds of each. When I went down the meat aisle, she had roasts, both pork and beef, sausage, bacon, chicken and lamb and extra large eggs. Damn, my mouth was watering already, for lamb was my favorite.  Maybe she would like to have me sit down with her.

Bread, she wanted wheat and twelve grain, both loaves and rolls. She had butter, yogurt and cheese and when it came to ice cream, she wanted the gallon size, two if they have different kinds. I didn’t think I would have any money left and I made sure I had extra money in my hand when I reached the checkout. I had enough, but just barely.  My change was a nickel and two pennies.  The groceries went on the back seat of the van.  I handed Chazzy the change and the slip.  “No beer?  You didn’t get beer.”

“I’ll get that at the discount center.  I have to stop for gas.”

“Good, I like beer with my meals.” She paused, “Damn, I forgot to put freezer bags on the list.”

I broke in with, “I have a good supply.  Cooking for one person, I always have leftovers.”

“Smart man, that’s what I do too.  Of course with my appetite, I don’t always have too many of those.”

As we turned onto my road, I told her that at this time of year the mud could get pretty bad. “We have two miles of it after we leave the black top. My driveway is about three hundred yards long and I drag all the way. It’ll last another week and then it will start to dry up.  The mud is a lot worse over beyond here.  Dummerston and Newfane have further to truck gravel to fill in the mud holes.”

“What town is your house in?”

“Brattleboro.  The Dummerston town line is at the top of the hill.”

“Is this your house we are coming to?”

“Yes, hang on, I’m going to have to goose the hell out of the van to get through this.”  We were considerably bounced around as I charged through the mud, just being able to make it.

I pulled in front of the house.  Chazzy said, “I’m not going to do any driving until the mud dries up, that’s for sure.”

We unloaded the groceries.  I carried the heaviest of her suitcases into the room she had rented.  She was looking with interest at the furniture.  I pointed out where the bedclothes were stored.  “You better get them out.  You can fluff them in the dryer if you want.”  She took off her hat and coat and threw it on the bureau.  My God, what a hunk of woman!

“Go ahead and stare.  Most people do.  That is why I don’t go out too much.  You’ll get used to how I look if you are around me for awhile.”

I was somewhat embarrassed, but I wanted to keep looking.  She had invited me to, hadn’t she?  I did, I walked around until I was behind her and paused.  “Okay, that’s enough. Come around where I can see you.” She said this as she whirled to face me. Her face may not have been what her parents hoped for her, but there was no disputing the rest of her was fine. There just was so much of it.

I smiled into the face that was equal in height to mine.  “You’re beautiful!”

“Yeah right. As beautiful as a horse.”

“No seriously, you’re beautifully proportioned.  The dress you have on is just right and your hair style is perfect.”

“Mr. Jones, I have known you for less than an hour and I think you have gone far enough with your remarks.”

“My apologies, Miss Michaels.”

“That’s Chazzy to you.  What is your first name, now that we’ve got the boundaries established?”

“It’s Marvin.  Call me Marv, which I hate, or just plain Jones, as others do.  Hey, I’ll get more suitcases.” When I came in and put two of them down, Chazzy had the sheets out and was making her bed.  I grabbed the blankets and went down to the cellar to put them in the dryer to fluff. There was an opening over the washer that had at one time been a place to shoot laundry down. I could hear my new guest on her phone.

“Uncle Mort, I got here all right, but we can’t do anything for a few weeks. You can’t believe the muddy roads they have here.  I think I’m about three miles from the house and I’m on the right road, but still in Brattleboro.  I don’t really remember what the place looked like and I don’t want to ask too many questions.  The person I’m renting from is a pretty nice guy.  When we get done what we have to, I just might stay here for awhile and get to know him.” 

So---she was here because of where she stayed when she was younger.  Why had she dropped her last name and why didn’t she come right out and ask about her former home?  Well it wasn’t really a home because she only stayed the summer. There were places like this all over southern Vermont for people with money to come and stay a few weeks.  Wow! A mystery for sure!  Maybe I could have a real mystery to unravel. I should be able to because I wrote mystery stories for a living.

I waited down in the basement for the blankets.  I heard her go out and get her last two cases, and it sounded like she was putting her things away.  I got the blankets out of the dryer and folded them slightly so I could carry them.  I received a smile of thanks as I parked them in a chair.  “I’m having  soup and a sandwich for supper.  My heavy meal of the day is at noon. I can put together a sandwich for you if you wish.”

“No, I’ll cook myself a hamburger.  What kind of soup?”

“Tomato.”

“I’ll have a cup, if you have enough.”  When Chazzy cooked hamburgers, she fried an onion and used almost a pound of hamburg for the two she fried.  It made my mouth water to sit across the table from her.  They weren’t on the plate long, as they disappeared into her mouth at a rapid rate. She drank the hot soup from a mug.  Half before she began on the hamburger and the last before she started on the second one.  She washed that burger down with a can of beer.

I considered myself a good feeder, but I knew I couldn’t compare to Chazzy.  “That was good.  I like your choice of beer.  You know, I’m going to be doing nothing all day to speak of.  Why don’t I do the cooking for both of us?”  She didn’t look like she wanted an argument, so I agreed.  I think my world had changed and it was certain to change more in a very short time.

There wasn’t much for dirty dishes and we did them up in a few minutes.  After that I went in and put on the evening news. I did this every day. Chazzy sat on the couch and I parked in my recliner.  When the news was over I said, “TV is all yours if you want.  I have some things to write in my office.”  I received a thank you.

I worked for two hours on a novel I was composing.  I began to smell popcorn.  I came out and she had my huge mixing bowl full of popcorn.  “I was hungry so I went looking for a snack.  I found the popper so borrowed some corn and made it.  I’ll pay you back next time you are in town.”  I hunted up a cereal dish and scooped some out of the bowl.  She had put enough butter on it to practically soak the kernels.

The road was frozen over in the morning, so I went for my walk.  I always planned on doing this, but sometimes I skipped out.  I did walk enough to keep me lean anyway.  When I returned, I could hear the shower running.  I put coffee on and set about getting my breakfast.

I usually had one egg on toast, one extra slice of toast, one slice of bacon, one sausage link.  As I sat down to eat, Chazzy came in with a robe on.  It was easy to tell that was all she had on.  She was well covered, but what was under the robe moved with every step she took. That is facing me or going in the other direction.  It had been a couple of years since I had a steady woman in the house and this was quite a show for me.

“Look all you want, Jones, but you ain’t ever going to get none.”

I mumbled, “Sorry.”  I watched as she put three eggs in the frying pan, four strips of bacon and three sausages in another and filled the four slice toaster with bread.  I said nothing, but got up and got the largest coffee mug I had out of the cupboard.  I had creamer, but no cream. 

“You will get some cream when you go to town again.  I need it in my coffee.  None of this fake stuff.”  I could tell she almost said crap, instead of stuff.  She put the food into her at an amazing speed.  Done, she stood and gathered all of the dishes.  “You don’t have a dishwasher?  We need one. I like to cook, but I hate doing dishes.  I’m going for a walk. Tell me about where the roads are within five miles of here?”

I drew her a map explaining where we were in relation to the different towns. It took her five minutes to get dressed and I watched her go down the driveway. I did the dishes.  Nothing had been said about dinner and she had agreed to cook the meals but---  I fixed a three and half pound chicken to roast. Smiling, I wondered if I would get any of it.  This done I went into my office and took up where I was last night with the story I was writing.  I heard her come in two hours later.

She knocked on my door, opening it before I asked her in.  I looked up at her.  The sweat suit was well named, for she was perspiring heavily. “That chicken in the oven.  Are you going to invite me or do I cook something for myself?”

“You’re invited, but---” and I paused, “you do the dishes. Shut the door, I’m busy.”

“Sorry.”  The door slammed.  I decided maybe we should have a sit-down discussion about what’s what after dinner. 

“So where did you walk this morning?” I asked Chazzy this as the last bit of chicken disappeared off of her plate.

“I went up the hill.  I saw the Dummerston town marker.  When I got quite a ways, I saw the road that said Marlboro, but I kept to the right onto the Ravine Road.  I went a long ways until I saw Barrows Road, turned around and came back.  I had a hard time coming back up the hill and was glad when I reached your driveway.”

“Oh then, Barrows Road is just past a house we have always called the Smith place.  Some summer people owned it back twenty years ago.  They don’t own it now and haven’t for several years. Is it muddy out that way?”  Chazzy’s head came up at attention when I said Smith place.

“Not any worse than this driveway is. In some places the road is still smooth.  How come?”

“That means it hasn’t broken up.  I mean, the frost hasn’t come out of the ground yet. Those spots will be muddy eventually.”

“I think I will buy me some kind of transportation.  What would you suggest?”

“I don’t know.  Where will you be driving and how far?”

“Not far, but I would like to be free to take off anytime.”

“Soon? If you are, you should have something with four wheel drive in it.  There are any number of vehicles out there.  Pickups and Subaru cars would do it.  You buying new or used?”

“Old and used, but dependable.  Would you know what to choose?”

“I could find something.  How much do you want to spend?”

“Could you get something good for a couple of thousand?”

“Sure.”

“Well after I get the damned dishes done, let’s look for something.”  I sat and watched as she did the dishes.  I think she thought I was going to be intimidated by her size and the shape of her body enough to help.  I wasn’t intimidated, really.  How can you be when something so admirable was moving around in close proximity to a person.  When she hung up the dish towel to dry she said, “You’re bad.”  She smiled and I grinned.  I think over time we were going to get along okay.

The next day we found a nine-year-old Subaru on a used car lot on Putney Road for $1795.  When it came time to make out the paperwork and pay for it, all she had was cash.  “Jones, I’ll make a deal with you.  I’ll give you the cash and you run it through your checkbook.  You buy the car in your name and when I leave, you can have it.  All you have is the van. Wouldn’t it be good to have a smaller vehicle?”

“Why?”

There was a long hesitation before she answered.  “I don’t want my name to show up anywhere, that’s all.”

“Is the law after you?”

“No, but I can’t tell you why either. Won’t you trust me on this one little thing.  You are getting title to a car that is all paid for, so isn’t that enough?”

“I’ll probably regret this, but I guess I can.  Give me the money.”  I went into the dealer’s office and told him I would be back with a check for the full amount.  I went across the street and bought a quart of half and half cream, a three pound bag of popping corn and handed over one of the hundred dollar bills to the checkout cashier.  She examined it and used her little pen on it, rang up the amount and gave me the change.

Chazzy was sitting out in the van wondering what I was up to.  When I came back, I handed her the grocery bag.  “What was that all about?”

“Just checking to see if one of the bills you gave me was counterfeit. It wasn’t, so I’ll go get a certified check to buy the car with.”

“What if it had been?” 

“You would have been out $100 and I would be answering questions by the police.”

“Would you have turned me in?”

“Maybe, maybe not.  Depends on whether you would be willing to do all the dishes while you live in my house.”

“You’re a bastard, you know.  I don’t think you like doing dishes anymore than I do.”  The paper license plates were installed and I gave Chazzy instructions on how best to get the car through the mud and we were home in time for supper.

Supper was the same for me as last night.  I made my sandwich from the remains of the can of tuna fish and opened another can of tomato soup. It would have been celery, but Chazzy said she didn’t like that kind. Her meal consisted of the same hamburg and beer as last night along with the soup.

This woman had a beautiful body, and there was a lot of it.  She ate three times as much as I did.  Was it just habit or did she eat because she liked to exercise and thought she needed the fuel so that she could.  “Chazzy, how much do you weigh?”  I was going for it.

“None of your business.  What a question to ask a person.”

“Let me guess then. I’m guessing you weigh in at 267 pounds.  I’m not trying to insult you, I just worry about how much strain you are putting on your heart.  You came in yesterday all sweat from your walk and you consumed almost 5000 calories at dinner.  That’s a recipe for disaster.”

“I like to eat, that’s all.  You said yourself I was nicely proportioned.”

“And you are.  Look at me, though.  I’m an inch taller than you and weigh sixty pounds less than you do.  I exercise, but I do it because I like to.  You have to exercise to keep your weight down.  If you ate 4000 less calories a day, you wouldn’t have to worry at all about your weight.  You could go walking or running and wouldn’t even break a sweat.  You would feel so good when you came in from the exercise.”

“Why are you complaining?  You like to look at my tits and my ass.”

“Yes and I would still like to look at them if you were a forty instead of a fifty-four.  Your cup size would decrease as well.  None of the double Ds stuff.  Your waist would shrink eight inches and you would lose a foot off your hips.  You would be the same proportion, but a lot healthier. I think you still have muscle tone or your breasts and buns wouldn’t move so delectably when you walk.”

“What do you know?”

I grinned.  She thought all along I was watching her because I was turned on.  (I was a little.) “I am a medically trained nutritionist.”

She had a defense.  “I didn’t used to eat like this, but I had a job where weight was everything.  I needed to eat to bulk up.”

“Are you going back to that job?”

“No, I’m getting too old for it now.  I suppose you know how old I am as well?”  This was a challenge.

“Would thirty be about right?”

“You son-of-a-bitch.”

I held up my hand. “Lucky guess, that’s all.  Hey, I should get in a couple of hours writing.”  This time it was she who was staring after me.

I spent some time on the Internet looking for anything I could about Chazzy.  It was an unusual name, but I came up with zilch.  Feeling crazy, I typed in “Amazon Women” and there she was.  Gladis Shadis, female wrestler.  It gave her age as twenty-three at the time the image was taken. There were several blurbs and sports news articles about her.  The last one was that she had been injured severely and had been invited to work in films.  She was interested. 

I tried every genre, including porn, and I finally struck her image in horror flicks.  Two films only before she retired saying she wasn’t interested in making films a career. Jan Mortimer.  I wondered if Uncle Mort had anything to do with the name she had chosen for this career.

The next day Chazzy didn’t have too much to say.  Her meal was smaller at breakfast, but her ten o’clock snack more than made up for the calories she had denied herself earlier.  She was so frustrated!  By evening she had consumed more than 700 calories during this day than the day before.

I made an offer. “Chazzy, I could personally train you. I’m qualified.  I would need six months to do it right. That ‘Biggest Loser’ show on TV is good entertainment, but to me some of it must be pure torture.  I wouldn’t want to torture you.”

“When would you be done with me?”

“Depends on you, of course.  Even if you are reluctant to follow my program, I would guarantee that by October, you would be the image of what is best for you.  You would love it and without too many problems you could maintain it the rest of your life.”

“When do we start?”

Why was I doing this?  Well, I was waiting to find out what Chazzy’s real purpose was in coming here and renting a room from me.  In the meantime, I was enjoying being as close to her as I could be.  Over the next couple of weeks, she trusted me to weigh her in when she was only clothed in her pajamas, or to spot her when lifting weights.  I held her legs when she was doing sit ups.

She occasionally called her Uncle Mort. I planned it so I could overhear a bit when I got the chance.  Nothing new, though.  As the weather warmed, we found we could run on certain smooth sections after the road was graded.  Always we went in the direction of the Smith place.  It was five weeks later when we arrived in front of the house still with our wind intact.

“Do you think it okay to go up and look into the house through the windows?” 

“You can.  I can’t.  I promised my father I would never go onto this property.”

“He is dead isn’t he?”

“Yes, but a promise is a promise.”

“That’s crazy.  What is he going to do. Send a bolt down from heaven, or would it be a fireball up from hell?” 

“It could be either, but I’m not breaking my promise.”

“Stay here then.” I watched as Chazzy walked up and looked in.  I saw her shake her head. Evidently there were blinds closed on the first floor.  She looked up to the second story and then she came back around front.  She poked around and bent down and turned over some of the flag stones.  Suddenly she stood upright and glanced back where I was standing in the road.  She had found the key to the front door.

She approached the door and I could see her fitting it into the lock.  The door swung open and she peered in.  She hesitated and looked at me again.  I shook my head violently---No!  I could see her smile and pull the door closed. She locked it and replaced the key where she had found it. 

When she reached my side she was laughing and made the comment,  “People are so dumb.  I bet I could find your spare key if I wanted to.”

“Yesterday maybe, but not after today.”

“Damn, now it is me that is dumb.”  She was still smiling.

The weather warmed and summer progressed.  I couldn’t get Chazzy to go into town with me.  She did go for drives in her/my car sometimes.  I had no doubt that the Smith house was thoroughly inspected when I wasn’t there to object.  My novel was completed by July fourth and I sent it off to the editor to be edited and proofread before doing any rewrite.  I was a terrible speller, and even with spell checker there were a myriad of mistakes. I had two weeks before I expected it back.

Chazzy had lost twenty pounds by this time.  She was still in proportion and she was beginning to enjoy the diet and the amount of calories I was allowing her.  Sometimes, she would push her plate back and say she was saving the calories or she could spend them on her next meal.  Maybe she did use them and maybe not.

And she seemed happy now.  She had a nursery rhyme that she often sang.  My mother taught it to me when I was small, so I knew the words.

1-2, buckle my shoe
3-4, shut the door
5-6, pick up sticks
7-8, lay them straight
9-10, big fat hen

I quizzed her why she sang it.  “My Dad taught it to me. When I was older he made up another one, but I guess I have forgotten most of it. Maybe someday I will sit down and see if I can remember it.”

“Let’s go swimming.  The water will still be cool, but we can brave it.  I think maybe Williamsville swimming hole.”

“That’s where you go down a steep bank through the woods, right?”

“Did used to go down, but it is posted now. No one has been able to use that access for years.  You can walk up the river though.  Where did you ever hear of the swimming hole or knew that you had to go down the steep bank to it?”  I got a shrug of the shoulders and no answer.  I didn’t follow the question with more.  I dropped it.  “I don’t care anyway. I just want to see you in a bikini.”

“No bikini.  Not as young girls wear anyway.  I do have a two-piece though. I’ll put it on so you can see me.”  I waited for a few minutes and then heard a burst of laughter. “Jones, come in so you can laugh with me.”

I pushed the door open. The bottom was just barely hanging on her hips, and the top, she held the straps of her bra folded behind her so the cups wouldn’t gap open.

I stared. God she was lovely!  Oh, she still had a ways to go, but you could see the hard body emerging.  I looked into her eyes. She had stopped laughing. I turned without saying anything and went out and sat in the living room. It had taken all of my will power not to cross the room and put my arms around her.  Three months she had been here.  Suddenly things had changed.

I guess they had changed for her as well.  She was dressed in a sun dress when she came out minutes later.  She had a full set of underwear on underneath.  “Jones, damnit, why did you do this to me?  I’m a freak, for God’s sake.”

“You aren’t to me.  I said you were beautiful the first time I saw you without your coat and you are more beautiful as time goes on.”

“What about my frigging face?  You can’t like someone with a face such as mine.”

“No, I couldn’t like your face.”  Her face fell and tears started.  “I could love you though, in spite of what you think your face is.”

“I wish I could believe you.  It just isn’t possible.  You don’t know how many times I have almost killed myself because of it.”

“I don’t doubt that, and you probably don’t want platitudes.  So what are your plans? Are you going to hide here forever?  By the way, why are you here?  You said you illustrated children’s books, but I haven’t seen you working on any.  You’ve had plenty of time.  I have written six chapters of a book and been personal trainer to you.”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Okay maybe not.  Can I ask some questions?  I think I have some rights.”

“You can ask, but I may choose not to answer.”

“Does it have anything to do with you being Gladis Shadis?” A look of horror settled over Chazzy’s countenance.  She silently shook her head no.

“How about being Jan Mortimer in a couple of horror films?”  Hopelessness was there now, but she shook her head no again.

“Okay, is your name Chastity Michaels--- ” She started to shake her head yes, but paused when I finished with, “Smith?”  This brought a waterfall of tears.  I let her cry for a few minutes.  Finally she looked at me and could see I was waiting to say more.

“Who is Uncle Mort?   I’m being totally honest now.  I inadvertently overheard part of your phone call to him the first hour you were here.  There is an unused laundry chute in the basement that is directly under your room. A person can hear from there as plainly as if they were right beside you.”

“Uncle is my mother’s brother.  He really is my uncle.”

“Big Tony Smith is, or was, your father, correct?”

“Yes.  He disappeared twenty years ago this September.  I hate to say this, but Mom is slowly losing her grip on reality.  She thinks she and Uncle Mort are kids sometimes and she tells him things just as she did when they were young.

“One of the things is that somewhere and somehow, she thinks Big Tony collected a large number of diamonds.  She won’t say more about them, no matter how many times Uncle Mort quizzes her.  She just changes the subject or jumps back to the present.  I suspect Uncle Mort and Big Tony were in the same game, business, mob, or whatever you want to call it.  Big Tony met Mom through Uncle Mort, but Dad and Uncle didn’t get along all that well.”

“So you are up here to look for the diamonds?  It doesn’t sound as if you have much of a chance of success.

“I’m supposed to look around and listen to the neighbors after I get friendly with them and see if they remember anything that happened that day in September, twenty years ago.  It has to be hopeless.  Christ, the houses are so far apart up here.”

“Yeah, and the summer people and the natives didn’t mix much---still don’t for that matter. I know just a little about you.  I was at the swimming hole one day when you were there. You don’t remember me, but I remembered you.”

“Why, was I this ugly back then?  I didn’t think it happened until I reached my teen-age years.” 

“You weren’t ugly, just tall.  Actually I remember your bicycle more than I remember you.  You had your name on it. When you told me your name it all came back to me.”

“If I am summer people as you put it, how come you are friendly with me?  You certainly are a native Vermonter.”

“Big difference, you and me.  You are renting and living with me in the same home. It would be boorish of me not to be friendly and not make you feel at home.”

“Jones, this is the best and nicest home I have ever had.  I suppose now that you know so much more about me, you will be wanting me to leave.”

“Nope, not yet anyway.  I still want to see what you look like when I get 15 or 20 more pounds off of your frame.”

“That means you won’t kick me out before sometime in October.  I’ll take it.  I still want to go swimming.  Are there other places around where people won’t be able to look too closely at my face?”

“Sure, there are spots in the West River.  We might have to act like lovers.  No one would bother us then.”

“Always the man aren’t you?  Well if I have to, I have to.  I’ll give you my size and you can pick me up a suit tomorrow.”

“Christ, the saleslady will think I’m buying it for myself.”

“We can’t go swimming then.”

“Okay, okay, tomorrow morning I will get a suit for you.  It’s going to be brief, though.  Do you need a razor for anything?”  Chazzy’s face went bright red.  Mine was full of innocence.

I knew immediately I had gone too far.  “I’m sorry for that last remark.”

I was hoisted on my own petard, immediately.  “Yes I need a razor and you, you bastard, are going to imagine me using it too.  I don’t care how tiny the bikini is either.”  She then burst into tears and fled to her room.

I waited fifteen minutes for Chazzy to come out of her room.  When she didn’t, I knocked gently.  “May I come in for a minute?”  I didn’t get an answer.  I knocked again and pushed the door open.  She was sitting by the window with her face looking out.  “Chazzy, I was way too fresh.  I’m sorry.  Forgive me, please?”

“Sure, I forgive you.  Just remember how fragile my ego is sometimes.  I know my body is something and yet my face is so horrible. I just feel as if people think because of that they can take liberties.  They think I am so  homely I should be thankful for any kind of attention.  And Jones, I’m human and sometimes I can come up with a slight when there isn’t anything there. I know you meant well and I was getting up courage to come out and tell you to forget it.

“I hate it that you have to get personal items for me.  It makes it worse when you comment on some of them.  I’ll give you a list in the morning.  Just don’t comment.  If there is something you can’t buy, I’ll understand. We don’t have to go swimming---but I would like to.”

“Chazzy, again I’m sorry. I’m just beginning to realize how sensitive you really are. Tell me how you got into a wrestling ring and performed before thousands?”

“I don’t know.  I did it at first without thinking, I was new and I did enjoy myself.  My promoter and agent needed new blood so-to-speak.  I was big and my body was great.  But then men on the same card started hitting on me, and my agent kept saying it was great if I let my name be linked to some male champion. The public got to believing I was screwing all of the wrestlers. I challenged my agent about all the gossip. He basically said I was property and not a person.

“I quit. I never screwed anyone. I refused any more matches and that’s when suddenly it was given out I was severely injured and had to resign and find other work.  The bastards drove home the fact I was just meat for the skillet.

“The same thing happened in the movie industry.  I was kissing werewolves and ghouls and every chance the actors had, they were grabbing me where I didn’t want them to.  I mean the writers were writing scenes specifically for that purpose.  My body was photogenic enough, but I always ended up looking more horrible than I really am. You should see me after they turned me into a vampire.”

After this emotional outburst I figured I would have a crying woman to deal with. Chazzy turned to me.  “Jones, relax your damned training for the day.  I need the biggest creamie you can buy at the Chelsea Royal. I’ll even ride with you.  I can make faces at the kids and scare the crap out of them.”  I shook my head.  I guess things were okay between us again.

Chapter Two

Uncle Mort phoned that evening.  I happened to be present when he called.  He told Chazzy that her mother, Delores, was getting worse all of the time.  She was in and out of reality and was making no sense at all.  She was always babbling about some guy named Merton, no family name given.  A cold chill went through me.  Just how close had my Dad been to Mrs. Smith?  I mean, Dad’s middle name was Merton.  He never used it, just the initial M.

Maybe this was the reason that Dad had been so adamant that I never go near the Smith place.  But why even after Big Tony had disappeared?  Did Dad have something to do with that as well?  God I hoped not.  I was looking at Chazzy when that thought crossed my mind.  I didn’t want her ever thinking that my Dad had anything to do with his death.  She might possibly hold it against me.  I couldn’t have that.

My father and mother had been dead for five years, dying only a few months apart.  He never mentioned the Smiths in the later years, except to caution me that one time about staying away from the property.  There was mystery, but I couldn’t begin to tell what it was.

I started thinking, maybe with Chazzy’s help, I should begin to clean out the attic.  The family had stored a bunch of boxes and trunks up there over the years.  It wasn’t the easiest place to get to and you really needed two people to bring stuff over to the trap door and hand it down the stairs.

I was thinking about it when the phone rang.  “Hi Marv, would you like a house guest next week?”

“Sure Babe, I was wondering if I was going to see you this year.  Are things the same as last year?”

“Right now they are. There are some changes coming up and this will be the last time I will be staying with you.  In your room, anyway.  How about you?”

“Well, I’ve rented the big room out to a woman.  She is almost a recluse and stays here on the place most of the time.  I do the shopping for both of us.”

“Are you sleeping with her?  I wouldn’t want to interfere.”

“No, I’m not sleeping with her.  She is big enough to repel any advances I made to her, so haven’t attempted to get closer.  I do like her very much and we do get along great.  I’m careful of her fragile ego though. I’m her personal trainer and that keeps us occupied.  I’m waiting on my latest book to come back for rewrite, so I’m pretty much free for the summer.  Babe, can’t you come a couple of days early? I’m anxious to see you.”

“That tells me more than everything else you have said. You need some sex don’t you?”

“More than usual. You’ll see why when you get here.”

I knocked on Chazzy’s door. I was told to come in.  “I just had a phone call from my ex-wife.  She is coming to stay next week.  You’ll like her.  Oh, we are still friends and sometimes intimate.  She will be sleeping with me in my room while she is here.  I just thought you should know.”  I felt awkward and couldn’t understand why.

“Okay, thanks for letting me know.  Goodnight, Jones.”  Chazzy turned from me and after a bit, I backed out of the room.

In the morning there were questions. “I didn’t know you had been married.”

“Yes, Jackie and I were married for five years. She is a surgeon in Boston and is very dedicated to her work.  When I took up writing, I found there were too many distractions in the city, so I came back to Vermont where I could concentrate. After a year or so we thought it best for us to divorce, so we did.  We still love each other very much and we do have an odd relationship.  From what she said on the phone last night, I think that is about to change.  She sounded as if this would be our last time together.”

“You must feel terrible.”

“No, not really.  We knew someday one of us would find someone to live with permanently.  I’m glad for her.  I imagine I will meet her new interest someday and I imagine I will be his friend as well as Jackie’s.  I hope so anyway.”

“You are very comfortable with the situation.”

“I am.  I want her to be happy and I want us to be friends. I can’t imagine Jackie picking a mate who wouldn’t be my friend.”

“Do you want me to leave while she’s here?  Won’t I cramp your style?”

“God no!  I want you to meet her and I want you two to become friends.  She grew up in Brattleboro and she’ll tell you all of the secrets and great times we shared, growing up together with our friends.  You’ll have more fun in the next week than you have had with me in the last three months.  Not only that, she will buy your bikini for you if you can wait that long to go swimming.”

“This scares me a little. I’m not much into becoming friends with anyone.”

“I know, and I won’t push for you to be.  Just remember that I like you both very much and it would please me if you got along good with each other.”

“I’ll try, but you know me.”

Life took another turn that I wasn’t expecting. I was in town laying in a supply of what my ex-wife liked to eat.  When I returned, Chazzy’s car was missing, but there was an older gold colored Cadillac sitting in the driveway before the front door.  A man was just coming down off the porch.  I pulled up behind the vehicle.

“Is this where Chastity Michaels is living?”

“Yes it is.”

“Good.  I’m her Uncle Mortimer.  I brought her mother to visit for awhile.  Help me get her into the house, would you? She’s tired and should be lying down.”

“Okay but it will have to be in her daughter’s room.”

“That’s fine. When will Chazzy be here?”

“I have no idea.  She comes and goes as she pleases.  I don’t imagine it will be too long.”

“I’ll wait for a little while then.”  We practically had to carry Delores (Michaels) Smith into the house.  Even I could tell that it was more than just being tired that was the trouble with her.  We laid her on the bed and put a comforter over her and she went right off to sleep. She wasn’t even awake enough for me to be introduced.  The amount of luggage that was unloaded from the Caddie was surprising.  It seemed as if I was going to have a guest for more than just a few days.

Uncle Mort hung around for three-quarters of an hour.  It almost seemed to me that he wanted to leave before his niece returned, but didn’t want me to notice.  As he was going down the driveway, he met Chazzy coming up.  He pulled over and they talked through their rolled down windows. The conversation lasted for more than ten minutes.

She drove her car up and parked it beside the house.  I thought she would hurry in and see her mother.  Instead she sat there.  Finally she came in slowly.  “Uncle Mort said he brought Mom here.  He thinks she is about to die.”

“What do the doctors say?”

“She has been to only one.  He is an older than the hills fart.  What does he know?  He says it is Alzheimer’s disease and her brain is deteriorating rapidly.”  Chazzy was crying now.  “We don’t have any insurance.  Uncle Mort says to let her die.  It would be the most merciful thing for her.”

“You can’t do that.”  I went to the phone and called 911.  “I have a woman here that is very unstable, almost comatose.”  I was answering questions as fast as they were asked.  It took the Rescue Squad just under fifteen minutes to arrive.  I took Chazzy in her car and we followed Rescue to the emergency room.  I let Chazzy answer the questions this time as the mother was being evaluated.

The emergency room was quite large and while Delores was being checked, Chazzy hid the best she could in one corner.  This was the first time I had seen Chazzy out in any kind of public setting since I had picked her up at the bus depot months before.  She was in a panic mode.  I guess I could understand a little bit now why I was the person who had been doing the shopping for her.

Three hours later Delores was admitted.  She had been through a series of scans in X-ray.  The diagnosis was that she had a brain tumor and should be operated on as soon as possible.  There would be a consultation in the morning among the doctors.  I didn’t say it, but with no insurance, there was going to be some problems.      

Chazzy and I didn’t feel like eating when we got home.  I made toast and tea and found we were hungry after all, so I made more. Toast this time was loaded with jam.  “How much money do you have?  This is going to be costly, you know.”

“I know, but I can’t let Mom die.  I think I can scrape up about $53,000.  That won’t be enough will it?”

“No, probably not.  How about your uncle?  Delores is his sister.”

“Hah! The way he has treated Mom all of her life, I wouldn’t think to ask him.  You know he was the one that practically sold her to Big Tony when she was seventeen.  I’m surprised Uncle Mort hasn’t hired a hit man to get rid of Mom.”

I stared at Chazzy. “You don’t know do you?  Well, I’m not going to tell you much, but don’t bring my uncle into this, especially where money is concerned.  You hear about family and how they pull together. Not true in this case.  Jones, I think you are my only hope.  I’ll make a deal with you.  You know, sort of like an indentured servant.  I’ll keep house for you as long as it takes to pay off Mama’s debt.”

“You must think I’m rich.”

“No I know you aren’t, but you write books and they must bring in a lot.  You wouldn’t have to pay it all at once.”

“You would sign up for a long time to save your mother?”

“I have to.”

“Well, that’s exemplary, but I hope it’s not necessary.  Let me make some phone calls.”  I dialed Jackie’s number and a sleepy man’s voice came on the phone and said hello.

“May I speak to Jackie, please? This is Marv Jones.”

A minute later. “Hi, this is a surprise.  What’s up?”

“Jackie, a woman, somewhere around fifty, diagnosed with a brain tumor, no insurance, destitute and a resident of Townshend MA. Is there any help for her?”

“Umm, maybe.  Where is she?”

“Here in Brattleboro.  She is kind of a friend of a friend.  The doctors are having a conference call in the morning about her condition.  Would you call and sit in?”

“This is important to you, isn’t it?  Is it important enough to relinquish what we agreed on when we divorced and what I was going to fulfill next week?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.  What time are the doctors having their meeting?”

“Eleven o’clock.  Jackie, bring your friend when you come up.  I’ll make up the guest bedroom so you can be comfortable. No matter if your efforts do or don’t produce any results, bring him anyway.”

I hung up the phone and smiled at Chazzy, giving her some hope for her mother’s well being.  Me, I had given up something that I had only been looking forward to since she had called me last night. This was the date I had with my ex-wife for a whole week of love and friendship. Funny, I made the agreement to give up this week with Jackie and as of yet, I didn’t regret it.

I looked at Chazzy,  “I called a surgeon and she is going to sit in tomorrow.  Maybe we will have some good news about your mother.”

“That was your ex-wife, wasn’t it? Why would she help?”

“Chazzy, I suspect from a couple of clues I have had, that your Mom knew my father.  I would like to find out how well they knew each other.  When and if your mother gets well, I’m going to ask her. She can’t refuse answering me truthfully.  I’m willing to expend the effort to make that happen.”

“Do you think they had anything to do with Big Tony’s disappearance?”

“I doubt it.  Chazzy, tell me something?  You most usually refer to your father as Big Tony---not Dad.  Why?”

“Everyone called him that, even Mom.  He was huge.  Much bigger than you. Where do you think I got my size from?  Besides that, he was always busy and I was mostly under my mother’s care.”

“Okay I guess I can understand it.  I always called my father, Dad.  It was just a question.  Change of subject.  You will have to be at the doctor’s conference in the morning.  Are you going to be able to handle it all right?”

“Yes.  I can do what I have to do, when it is really necessary.  I did yesterday, didn’t I?”

“Yes you did, but I could tell you hated it.”  I received a shrug of the shoulders.

In the morning, I took Chazzy into the hospital.  I was questioned about my right to be in attendance.  I replied that if the patient, Delores, was to be transported anywhere, I was available to pay for it.  Besides, the woman’s daughter requested my presence.  I was in---not welcomed---but I was there anyway.

The conference commenced.  Jackie checked in by phone and was to take part in the discussion after the doctors explained what and where the tumor was located.  Jackie did have the X-ray and scans that had been faxed to her.

As the meeting wound down, it had been decided that Delores was to travel to Boston to the Leahy Clinic for the operation. Jackie would be assisting in the operation without charge.  The hospital administration had worked hard to find what resources they could to reimburse them. As the patient was a resident of MA, the surgeon’s fee would be covered as well, up to 80%.  The hospital would bill their charges, and there were some plans where some of these charges would be picked up.  The transportation cost by ambulance was noted by Jackie.  “I’m picking that up.”

“Is that you Marv?  I wondered if you wouldn’t do something to help.”  The attention now was really on me. “I’ll be up to stay with you on Tuesday, after the operation and the initial recovery is completed.  Mrs. Smith should be in her room sometime on Monday so our plans shouldn’t be a problem.  Are we finished here gentlemen?  If so, I’ll start lining up the operating room and personnel. Wish me success in the procedure.”

The doctor in charge went to work ordering the transfer from Brattleboro to Boston. It was taking place this afternoon. Delores was to be admitted and would go into the operating room Monday, the day following tomorrow.  Chazzy and I went up to her room and looked in on her mother.  She was awake and was pleased to see her daughter.  She looked at me.  “Hi Merton, how is Janice?”

I answered that I was fine and almost said that Mom was good too.  Delores evidently was thinking I was my father and that mother was still alive. Chazzy realized this and took over the conversation, which was disjointed and with many pauses.  I was still puzzled over why Delores used my father’s middle name and not his first of John.  If Delores came out of this, I’m sure I would find out.

Arrangements were made for Chazzy to travel with her mother in the ambulance and a room would be provided when she arrived at the hospital.

“Jones, wish me luck.  I don’t mean about Mom.  I mean that I don’t have a panic attack through all of this.  I’ll be fine if someone doesn’t make a comment on how I look.”

“You can’t help how you look.  You’re big and you can be intimidating.  Use that to your advantage. If someone makes a snide remark, head right for them and challenge them.  Get right in their face and ask them to repeat what they said.  I bet you’ll get an apology.”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that.”

“No, I don’t suppose you can.  Oh well, you’ll be back home in a few days.  You are coming back aren’t you?”

“I couldn’t live anywhere else.”

“Good, bring your mother with you if she will come.  I don’t want her going back to your uncle. I think he wanted her to die.”  I got Chazzy ready and took her back down town to the hospital.  I walked her in and went up to her mother’s room. Delores was sleeping.  It wasn’t long before she was being made ready for transport.  Suddenly, it was a little awkward between us.

“Call me this evening.  I want to know how your mother stood the trip.”

“Okay.  Jones, I don’t know how to thank you for doing so much for me. It is a debt I’m afraid will never be paid, because it is so much.”

“Don’t worry about it unless I send you a bill.  Chazzy, I’m being honest now.  You have made my life so much less lonely these last few months.  I’ll miss you just for the few days you will be gone.”  I stepped to her and put my arms around her.  “I mean, I’ll really miss you!”

“I’m at a loss for words.  I have never known anyone that is as nice as you. I’ll be back.”  The ambulance was waiting and Chazzy slid into the front seat.  She put her arm out the rolled down window and I grasped her hand as the vehicle pulled away.

I received a call from her in the evening. “Jones, thank God we got Mom here when we did.  She had convulsions not long after she was settled in her room.  There was a team right here and they were able to stop them almost immediately.  Think what might have happened if you hadn’t got her to the hospital yesterday and got care for her.  She might even be dead by now.  I’m going to be able to stay here in the room with her.  Everyone is so nice to me.

“I wish I was home now, but I know I will be in a few days.  You know what you said about what I should do if someone said something mean about how I look?  I thought it over and you know what?  I’m just waiting for someone.  Boy are they going to get it.”  I laughed.

“Jones, I know what you were thinking when you laughed just now.  You were thinking that you have created a monster, weren’t you?”

This was said in such a way that I knew she wouldn’t be hurt if I admitted it.  “Have I?”

It was her turn to laugh.  “Not yet, but it could happen. There was a pause.  “Jones, I’m going to meet your wife in the morning.  She is scheduled to come in about nine.  I’m worried about it.”

“Don’t be.  You think I’m nice, wait until you meet her.  She is wonderful.”  There was a silence.  “Chazzy?”

“I’m here.  You still love your wife don’t you?”

“Of course I do, but really, our relationship is over.  We are both okay with that and are the best of friends.  If you get a chance to talk to her after you meet, tell her about what we have been doing.  You know about your exercise and diet program.  She’ll be very interested.  I’m not telling you why either.  Chazzy, I’m going to bed and you should too.  Call me again tomorrow night.  Promise?”

“I will.  Goodnight Jones, I---”

What was Chazzy going to say as the receiver clicked?  Was she going to finish the sentence with “love?” How did I feel about that?  Umm, maybe a little more than okay.  And---the house felt so empty without Chazzy in the other room.

Jackie was the first to call the next day.  “Hi Marv, I looked in on the woman that I’m seeing in surgery tomorrow.  I think her chances are good for a complete recovery. That is unless the growth is cancerous.  Even then, because of its position, I think there will be little problem.  I met her daughter.”  Jackie stopped speaking.

I waited for her to continue.  She didn’t.  “And?”

Now she did. “We talked.  We talked about her mother, but more about you.   The woman is in love with you.  She will never admit it.  Her self-esteem is too low.  She actually didn’t admit how she felt about you, but I know where she is coming from.  I felt much the same way about you at one time.  I still love you.  You gave me such a boost when I needed it.”

“I had to.  You had so much talent as a promising surgeon.  I couldn’t see it wasted.  I kind of gathered that you may have met someone that will make you happy in all respects.  That’s a question.”

“Yes I have.  I know you will be happy for me.  Thank God this other came up before I came to Vermont for our last tryst.  If Chazzy heard us making love, it would have just about destroyed her. I would be feeling guilt as well, but I promised you one last love making session.”

“I wasn’t going to hold you to it and I was going to suggest other sleeping arrangements after you arrived.”

“Oho. You feel something for Chazzy as well.  Marv, I have a question.  Don’t her looks bother you?”

“Yes they do, but for her, not for myself.”

“You know, we have some fabulous reconstructive surgeons here.  They can do wonders and make most of her problems go away.  They are expensive though and she couldn’t get much help from insurance.  It would be elective surgery.”

“I know all of that.  And who is going to suggest it to her?  Not me, because she would think I didn’t like the way she is.  I don’t, that part is true.  If her face was reconstructed, she would blossom into an amazing, beautiful person.  Her personality would change and her low self-esteem would disappear.  That is what I want for her.”

“You wouldn’t mind if I drop her a hint would you?  Then if she ever can get the financing, she would be a new person.”

“You can, but I don’t see it as ever happening.  Are you still coming up next week?  I’m dying to see you.”

“Yes, and I will have a man with me.”

“Great!  Jackie I think we have had the best relationship together.  I’m glad we both are single now, so we can move on to someone new.  I might even contemplate marriage again myself.”

“Chazzy?”

“Yes, Chazzy.  Jackie don’t say anything. This is all new, me thinking of her that way.  What I would really like is to bring her out of her shell just a little and have her get a little more confidence in herself.  It is in her, I just know it is.  She will be in Boston all of next week and she knows you are coming to Vermont.  I almost told her flat out we would be sleeping together.  If you can get a chance, let her know you will be sleeping with someone else.”

“Got it Marv.”

Chazzy called me not long after and told me what was going on and that she had a long talk with Jackie.  “I can’t understand how you could let someone as nice as she is get away from you.”

“I’ll explain it someday.  She didn’t tell you how we met did she?”

“No.”

“I’m sure you two will be seeing each other sometime in the future.  When you find out how we came together and why we parted, it will all become clear.  Are you all set for tomorrow?”

“As much as I can be.  Mom goes into surgery at seven in the morning.  They will start operating about an hour later.  They think it will take three to four hours.  That’s the hard part, the waiting, I mean.”

“Would you like me to come down? I haven’t offered because I didn’t want you to think I was pushing myself on you.”

“I wish you could be here.” This was said in a whisper that I could barely hear.

“Well expect me sometime mid-morning then.  Chazzy, I have to say the house was awful empty last night.”

“Thank you, Jones.  Good night.”

I could see Chazzy sitting in the corner of the waiting room when I entered. She had a magazine up in front of her face.  There were three other people in the room with her.  I stepped in front of her and spoke her name.  She came out of her chair with a happy, pleased look on her face.  She came into my arms, whirling me around enough so the others were looking at her back.  We must have looked like giants to them.

I glanced at one man where he was sitting across the room.  His eyes were taking in Chazzy from head to toe.  His eyes lingered more than a moment on her buns.  It made me smile and I was going to share this with Chazzy sometime. It made me proud because what he was looking at was due to my efforts in sculpting this amazon.

Time moved slowly. It was ten before twelve when Jackie came in stripping off her blues.  She had already removed her cap and was shaking out her hair. She used to have long tresses, but when she started in surgery they were a bother, so she wore it bobbed now.  She was short and slim, only about five feet, three inches tall.

“Marv, I didn’t expect you to be here. You can hear the good news.  Chazzy, I want to tell you that the operation was a success.  The test results on the specimen just came up from the lab.  The tumor was benign and there were no complications. It was quite massive and that was what was causing the orientation problems.  I see no complications in the patient’s full recovery.”

“Thank you so much Ms. Jones.”

“Jackie, call me Jackie.  I have to go now.  I might not see you again as Delores is in the care of one of the doctors the hospital has assigned to her.  I’ll be seeing Marv, because my boyfriend and I are going up to Vermont tomorrow to stay with him. 

“I’ll make sure the doctor keeps you in the loop about your mother’s progress.  You’ll be talking to him everyday.  I understand that you will be able to stay in the room with your mother.  That’s a plus for both of you.  You won’t have to worry and she will be seeing you there by her side.  That’s part of her remedial treatment.  Get Marv to take you out to a nice restaurant while he is here. 

“He knows his way around.  Your mom won’t be out of recovery for several hours and will spend twenty-four hours in ICU. Ten days here, and then she should be able to go somewhere for rehabilitation. Then she can go home as long as there is someone to care for her.  That would be Marv.  He’s qualified.  Good luck.”

We watched Jackie go out the door.  Chazzy looked lost. The other people in the room looked at this daughter whose mother had just come through serious surgery and the news was good. We could only hope these others had the same good news as we did.  “Come on, let’s get something to eat.”

“Can’t we eat here in Mom’s room?”

“No, I know a place where you will be comfortable.  Jackie was telling me where to take you.  I’ll tell you all about it after we order.”  This was a dark secluded place serving Italian food.  I used to take Jackie there when she needed much the same seclusion as Chazzy did now.  This was nine years ago.

The host said to me as he was seating us, “It has been a long time since you have graced our little place.  Welcome again.  How is the little one that used to come in with you?”

“She is fine.  We were married for awhile, but have both moved on.  We are still great friends and she has just finished operating on this lady’s mother.  It was a success, I must add.  Thank you and I will tell her you asked after her.”

“Jones, tell me all about Jackie.  She is so sweet and yet you let her get away from you.  Why?”

“She was always quite chubby as a child. It goes back to when she first decided to become a doctor.  She was doing great, except for one problem.  By then she was terribly heavy.  I would imagine she weighed about the same as you did when you came to me.  Just visualize what she looked like if you added another hundred twenty-five pounds to her. She was fine in the course work, but she had been advised to lose weight.  She was so heavy she couldn’t get near the tables the cadavers were being examined on.

“I met her again when I was studying to become a nurse, before I switched to nutrition.  Anyway I met her and her esteem was pretty low.  She was eating much as you were when we first met.  You said she is sweet.  She was the same back then. I was drawn to her and I took it on myself to see if I could help her.  She was so down, she was willing to attempt any remedy.  I did much as I did with you.

“Along the way we thought we were in love and became intimate.  A little more than halfway through her internship, we married.  We were happy, but as she became more adept as a surgeon, we couldn’t find the time to be husband and wife. We discussed it and decided we were more friends than lovers anyway.

“So after a few years we divorced.  On occasion the benefits were still there for both of us.  We have always known that part of our relationship would end someday.  She called me the other night and I asked her to bring the person she is romantically involved with up to Vermont this week.  I’ll see them tomorrow.  Others might think this was weird, but what isn’t in this world.”

“Do you have regrets that she has someone else?”

“I won’t if I think this person is up to her standards.  I’m sure he will be, because she is that kind of a person.”

“She must be if she chose you to help her.  I wish you could do the same for me.  It is a long way from just losing weight to getting a new face to put on top of a monstrous sized body.”

Here was the opening I was waiting for.  “You must be aware, even that isn’t insurmountable.”

“Don’t I wish.  Nice to think about though.”

“Well think about it.” Just then, the waiter came with our meal which interrupted our conversation. We didn’t get back to it, but I was hoping the seed was planted. 

I went up to ICU with Chazzy before I left for Vermont.  Delores was stable and her vitals showed she was where the doctors expected her to be at this point in her recovery. I walked Chazzy back to the elevator and she rode down with me.  She was going to retire to her mother’s room for the night. “Jones, I don’t think I could have got through the day without you. You be safe going home.”

“I will. Call me when your mother gets to her room.  I’ll be in the house waiting.  Jackie will want to know about her as well.”  We came together and hugged.  Chazzy apparently didn’t want me to leave, because she clung to me, finally letting go and turned back to the elevator.  Her eyes were on me as the door closed.

Next day, Jackie jumped out of her car and ran into my arms, smothering me with kisses. The person with her slowly got out and followed her, coming up to us with his hand outstretched.  “Sam Bucklin. Jackie has told me a lot about you.  You’re some kind of God from what she tells me.  Glad to meet you.”

“If I’m a God then she is an angel.  We have had a wonderful relationship together.  It’s a little different now, but we’re good.  Come in and tell me about yourself.”

Sam was a doctor who had a patient Jackie had operated on.  The results didn’t turn out too well and they had become interested in each other at that time. This happened when the board met to critique the procedures. This was automatic when a patient died.  Neither was found to blame either in the diagnosis or the surgery, and it was declared they had both performed correctly.

Chazzy called late in the afternoon, saying that Delores had to stay in ICU another twenty-four hours.  There were no complications, just that the staff thought it wise.  She missed me.  Thursday she called and said her mother was back in her room.  She was still heavily medicated, but aware some of the time.  I decided to make the trip down to see Chazzy.  I left Jackie and Sam at home.  This had been her home for awhile and I didn’t have to wonder if she was comfortable.

Delores called me Merton when I came into the room.  “No Mama, this is Marvin, John’s son.” 

“You look much like your father then.  Chazzy has been telling me about her last few months with you.  She claims you saved my life.  I haven’t decided whether that is good or bad yet.”  She paused to collect her thoughts.  She was really having to concentrate and then she continued,  “I have more baggage than ten people should have.  I’ll tell you about it sometime. Marvin, take Chazzy somewhere and feed her.  She hasn’t been out of this room since I was operated on.”

We were getting ready to go when Delores spoke again.  “Marvin, why don’t you take Chazzy home for a couple of days?  It is foolish for her to stay here all the time.  I’m going to be here another week at the least.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.  Come see me for a couple of hours on Sunday.  I’ll know by that time where they are sending me for rehabilitation. Marvin, you may kiss me.  Your father and mother were my great friends.” Again we had to wait for her thoughts to come together.  “I’m so sorry both are gone now. It wasn’t known of course at the time how friendly we were, because it wasn’t safe.  Things are better now, thank God.”

On the way back to Vermont, I made the comment that I had never heard Mom or Dad ever mention Delores. 

“I never heard of your folks either, but when I came back from California, Uncle Mort wanted me to come to Vermont.  I was to get a room and live with someone named Jones. This Jones might know about some people named Merton. Uncle Mort was insistent, but didn’t tell me more.  Somehow I don’t think either Mom or Uncle Mort are on the same wavelength.  He was the one that checked online and found out that you had a classified ad in the Brattleboro Reformer with a room for rent.”

“I wondered about that. You got off the bus and called me.  How would you know?”

“That’s how.  What he wanted to know was if you were rich and if you were, how you got your money.  I guess in the last few weeks, Mom was rambling on about the Jones’s and some people named Merton. That’s why he dumped her here with me, thinking she would know something and I could find out from her.  I have no idea what he is looking for.  I’m not telling him anything more. 

“Mom almost died.  I don’t think he would care, unless she has some great secret about something. He is a charming, but cold-hearted bastard.  Sometimes Mom seems afraid of him.  She should be after this.”

“What was your father like?  You don’t often speak of him.”

“At home, loving and warm.  He was madly in love with Mom. Out in public, he didn’t make anything of me or her. From appearances it seemed like he barely tolerated us.  I do know one thing, he hated Uncle Mort.  The story was that Uncle Mort sold Mom to Big Tony, but love blossomed between them and Uncle never knew.  They kept the fact hidden, especially from Uncle Mort.  Uncle Mort tried to trade on Big Tony’s connections, but my father was too smart for that. Doesn’t make sense.”

“I suspect you will find out when she gets well.”

“Not just me.  I think you are a part of this whether you want to be or not.”

When we arrived home, Chazzy was shy when introduced to Sam, but he had practiced his social manner for many years and soon had her at ease. Sam and Jackie were much into themselves and this was just a place to relax from the cares of making people well if they could.  Chazzy watched them and she watched me watch Jackie.  “How can you be so comfortable around your ex-wife? You have made love to her countless times.  Aren’t you jealous?”

“Sure I am, but not enough to cause a rift between us.  Remember we are friends and I don’t want to lose her friendship.  Too, as a friend, I want the best for her and I think Sam can give her what she needs.  I would hope she will feel the same way when I find someone.”  I laughed and then continued.  “That is the way civilized people are supposed to act.”

“Yes, but people hardly ever do.”

Sunday morning early, Sam and Jackie packed up and headed back to Boston.  I extended the invitation for them to come and stay in Vermont with me anytime.  They in turn invited us to sup with them at dinner tonight, when we said we were following them back to Boston. Chazzy agreed when she found it was going to be at the same small intimate place I had taken her before.

Delores was progressing nicely in her recovery.  There were therapists in three times a day, working on teaching her to walk again. This morning she had been able to stand alone and balance herself while the therapist counted to 100. 

Wednesday she was going to be transferred to the Greenfield area to complete her therapy, before returning to Vermont to stay with Chazzy in her room.  This program was so Delores’ bills would be picked up by the state of Massachusetts.  Also Greenfield is only twenty miles from home and we could visit her every day.  I think that Chazzy would be going alone as my book was back from the editor and needed a lot of work.

Two weeks into the therapy session, Delores was informed she could leave and go home as long as she had a place to go where there was someone to take care of her. She would have to come back once a week for a month for evaluation.

The week before she was slated to come home, Uncle Mort was in my dooryard again, asking to see his sister and niece.  “Delores is still in the hospital and Chazzy is with her.”

“What happened to her?”

“I took your sister to the emergency room the day you dropped her off.  She had a tumor growing on her brain and she was rushed to Boston for the operation.”

“I’m not surprised.  I couldn’t get much out of her the last few days and she kept falling down.  I took her to the doctor and he said she didn’t have much longer to live.”

I was getting pissed. “That was two months ago. Weren’t you concerned?”

He shrugged.  “We all die. Did Chazzy get to talk to her about some guy named Merton?  He supposedly knows about some diamonds my brother-in-law had.  He was saving them for me, but he disappeared before I got them.” 

“I don’t know anything about it.  She certainly could use some money.  The state of Massachusetts picked up most of the cost of the operation.  I advanced Chazzy the money for transportation to take Delores to Boston.”

“She’ll never pay you back.  She had a nice film career going and then she quit because of the way she claimed she was being treated.  She should have continued.  With her looks anything should have been welcomed.  She is so damned ugly she couldn’t even make it in a whore house. I wonder what she is going to do now.”

“You know I don’t think I like you much.  Why don’t you get the hell out of here and don’t come back.”

“You be careful, boy.  You’re messing with family here.  I have connections.” He said this as he followed my direction about leaving.

“Whatever. I will tell Chazzy you came by.”  Two hours later Chazzy came home and I related the exchange I had with her uncle.

“That son-of-a-bitch.  He isn’t the only one that has connections. Mom has some as well. But there must be a reason he is chasing after some money where there isn’t any.  Let’s go down and see Mother again today.  I want her in on this.  Uncle was always jealous of my father.  He better be careful because Big Tony was well liked and Uncle wasn’t.”

Delores was surprised to see Chazzy return again. I explained about Uncle Mort coming to see me and how peeved I was at some things he hadn’t done and at some of the things he had said.

“I guess I can understand about where my brother is coming from.  Marv, I’m going to share some things with you, you had better forget as soon as you hear them.  What I tell you is common knowledge with some people and I’m not breaking any confidences with those that count.  Mort would object if he knew I was talking to you, but I don’t owe him anything at this point.

“First, Big Tony was a financial adviser to certain people and I suspect he was well paid for it.  You wouldn’t know it by the way I have had to live after he died because he didn’t leave that much for me to live on.  I had to wait seven years after his disappearance to have him declared dead so I could get the remainder of his estate.  That is all gone now.  All I have is the house in Townshend left and so far I haven’t had to put any encumbrances on it.

“My brother has always been on the edge of what he wishes he was a major part of.  Just look at what he did to me.  He convinced me to become a toy to Big Tony, thinking this would gain him entry to a world he couldn’t break into in any other way.  I heard Big Tony call Mort a pimp soon after we fell in love. The hate between the two of them started at that moment.  Mort never gave up trying to become a part of what my husband was though.

 “Big Tony realized right off that Mort was dangerous and was always hesitant to share any information with him.  This only compounded the hate Mort had for my husband.  Big Tony always suspected that Mort was working for a different family than the one that he belonged to. That’s a little background of me and Big Tony and my brother. 

“Marv, you have been so good to me and Chazzy, I’d like to share more facts with you.  I would have to trust you more than I ordinarily would. Can I have your promise to keep all of what I tell you a secret?” She looked at me waiting for an answer. I was undecided until she stated, “Some of it involves your father.”

No doubt in my mind now. “What you tell me will never go beyond this room without your saying it can.  Does Chazzy know all of this?”

“No, some of it will be new to her as well. That is why Mort made advances to her and he was able to convince her to come to Vermont.  I guess I said some things during the time the tumor was growing that made him think that Big Tony had a stash of diamonds and they were tied to Vermont somehow. Big Tony did have a portion of his assets in diamonds, but he never told me where they were.”

“You said your brother was on the edge of the families but never able to become one of them.  Did he work for them?  He said he still had contacts.”

“He was on the edge, but no one trusted him very much.  I suspect he wasn’t above taking a contract on occasion.”

“By contract, does that mean what I think it does?”

“I suppose, but I never knew for sure.  All of this time Big Tony never let him come into our home.  It was rumored, and my husband wondered after the FBI pulled him in for questioning about some financial dealings, if Mort wasn’t making trouble for him/us.  It took me several years after Big Tony disappeared before I would speak to Mort. He is my brother, so eventually I did get together with him again.”

Delores was getting tired, so Chazzy and I made excuses and headed back to Vermont.  On the way home I brought up the subject of contracts and her uncle.  “Do you think Mort was what your mother thinks he was?” 

“Sure, she wouldn’t have said anything if she wasn’t.  Mom was immersed in this culture when she was seventeen.  She would know.  I’m surprised she said as much as she has to you.  I can tell she really likes you.  There has to be a hell of a lot more she hasn’t told us about how things were twenty years ago.”

“Was twenty years ago the time that he disappeared?  That was the summer I saw you at the swimming hole.”

“Yes, and that was the only time I was in Vermont. Dad bought the property when I was four, but he never took me there until the year I was ten.  Mom went sometimes in the years previous, but not me.  That must have been when she became friendly with your parents.  Are you sure you didn’t know Mom back then?”

“I don’t remember her, but Mom had a license and often went somewhere in the afternoons.  My grandmother was alive and I always stayed with her when Mom went visiting.  Dad was a handyman and did work around for different summer people while they were here in good weather.  He would close up their places in the fall and open them in the spring.”

Chapter Three

Big Tony and Mort Michaels were not discussed again while Delores was in Greenfield.  When she arrived to stay with Chazzy in her room, I broached the subject again.

“I have been thinking about what I told you a week ago.  I don’t think I want to tell you anymore.  You obviously loved your parents very much and I don’t want to destroy the memory you have of them.  Children can be so unaware of what their parents are doing unless it is pointed out to them.”

“Damnit, you’ve said too much already.  You might as well tell me all of it.  I think you owe me after all I have done for you.”

“Yes, and if I tell you everything, you will most likely wish you had let me die.  Some of it I don’t want Chazzy to know either.”

Chazzy took it out of my hands.  “Mom, by God you better tell us. It can’t get any worse for me, and Jones is old enough to handle it. We didn’t choose our parents and good or bad, we deserve to know.”

“Okay, you asked for it. Marv, your father was a gravedigger.  He buried bodies at $1,000 a whack and only in a private unrecorded cemetery.  He kept you away from where it was and you were never allowed there.”

“And what about Mother?  You said parents.”

“You don’t want me to go there.”

“I do.”

“Okay then, I tried my best to keep you from knowing.  Your mother was a hostess for some of the older men that came up to Vermont with Big Tony.  She was attractive, if you can remember her twenty years ago. I honestly don’t believe she ever slept with any of them.  At least not when I was here with Big Tony.  All of these men were old and retired and needed someone pleasant to talk with. She would mix a drink or get them a snack just like a wife would if they were at home.  Many of their wives had passed on.”

“Did Dad know about this---what she did, I mean?”

“Of course.  Sometimes he was there doing what he was hired for while she was in the house.  He was well respected the same as she was.  It paid well, too.  It paid the mortgage off on this place and I imagine it put you through school. This was going on the seven years before my husband disappeared. After that, I had only one letter from your mother severing all ties with me.  She was afraid they would be questioned after people started looking for my husband. Your parents were known to the men at the house as Mr. and Mrs. Merton.  If I hadn’t had my problem, Mort wouldn’t have got on to it and Chazzy wouldn’t have come here.  I’d be dead now as well.”

“Do you think he will make any trouble for you?  I have to admit, I don’t like him and I did practically kick him out.”

“I don’t think so. We’ll keep watch out for him.”

I was working on my book.  My meals were prepared on time and the house was spotless.  I was slowly learning all the ins and outs of what it was like living with a person who was married to the mob at one time.  I suppose a certain protocol was developed over the years.  Now I had a first hand window into it.  I’m sure eventually some of it would end up in a future book of mine.

When my credit card bill came with the transportation cost listed, I tried to hide it, but Chazzy was expecting it and confronted me.  “You show it to me. I promised I would work for you to pay it off for however long it took.”

I let her look.  “My God, I’ll be working forever.  That’s okay, I wasn’t going anywhere.”

“You might not think so now, but just as soon as this book is sent to be printed, I’m having you work in the basement cleaning and there are decades of stuff stored in the attic.  There are hundreds of books, some I want to read again.  I’m going to get rid of everything that has any value and junk the rest.”

As my book neared completion, I worked more with Chazzy on her diet and exercise.  She had nearly reached the goal I had set for her.  As Delores got stronger and more sure of herself, she asked me to take over doing for her the same as I did for her daughter.

We made a trip one day and she listed her house in Massachusetts with a Realtor.  A month later she received an offer and as I wasn’t too busy, we all stayed there and cleared out the things she had accumulated. She hadn’t been one to collect and her possessions pretty much were of what she used everyday.  We cleaned the house thoroughly before returning to Vermont.

“I feel better now.  I don’t feel as if I was sponging off you.”

“You aren’t sponging that much.  Chazzy is still paying rent for her room and we are sharing the cost of the groceries.  If it gets cold this winter, and it will, I’ll just crawl in bed with you two to keep warm.”  I was making a joke.  Chazzy looked at me and before she turned away, I could see tears start in her eyes.

“Marvin, please don’t joke about getting in bed with Chazzy.  To her it isn’t a joke.  I suspect it is her greatest wish.  It is so sad that she will never have a normal life because of how she looks.  She could be such a warm and caring person.  You know when her looks started to change, I had her evaluated.  It was determined that this isn’t hereditary. The bone structure was weak when she went into puberty.  It is something quite rare, but isn’t unknown.

“She has always pushed the opposite sex away, thinking that they would leave her in the morning.  That is why she quit wrestling and later quit Hollywood. She fell in love a couple of times, one each in what she was doing, but knew eventually she would be rejected. I have never asked her, but it wouldn’t be surprising if she has never been with a man.

“You know, if my brother found the stash that Big Tony reputably left, he would piss it away.  He certainly wouldn’t use it to fix Chazzy’s face. It is better if it is never found.”

“What’s it going to take?”

“Time-wise, I don’t know.  I do know it would take three separate operations.  I would guess six months total.  The cost would be astronomical.”

“There must be some clues as to what he did with the diamonds if he did have some.  Tell me about his last weeks and days.  You spent the summer here in Vermont.  I know because I remember seeing Chazzy at the swimming hole.”

“I can’t think of anything.  I know Big Tony was worried about being called before a commission to answer questions asked by the FBI.  I can thank my brother for that.  They certainly looked hard enough for him after his disappearance.  For a long time they suspected he had jumped the country, but they couldn’t find any evidence of that.”

“When did you leave for the summer?”

“It was the day before Big Tony was to leave.  We were supposed to go out to dinner with a couple of those in the family the next evening in Boston. We wives were to sit by ourselves while the men talked over business.  I assume that it was what the FBI was going to ask for questions. They wondered what Big Tony’s answers were going to be, when he was before the commission.”

She didn’t go on for minute, remembering.  “He was supposed to be home by noon.  I wasn’t too concerned until it was time for us to get dressed to go out. I called one of the men that we were to have dinner with.  He was upset immediately and said he would get back to me.  That didn’t happen until the next day.  I had called your father from a friend’s house and he said he had seen BigTony right after I had gone home.  He gave your father a box of Chazzy’s toys and would pick them up when he came up in the fall to close the house.”

“Oh, I remember them.  There was a bunch of checkers and some board games.  Mom let me play with them but finally said she guessed I shouldn’t as they belonged to you.  They stayed around here all winter and then I guess Mom got rid of them, for I have never seen them again.  Now what am I going to do about what I said to Chazzy?  I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings.”

“I know you wouldn’t.  I don’t have any advice for you.  She’ll get over it.  It has happened often enough.”  I walked into the bedroom.  Chazzy was lying on her side asleep facing the door.  I could see tear tracks and where she had smeared them.

I sat in a chair across the room from her and occasionally glanced at her.  I made the decision right then that some day she would have an operation.  I dozed for a short few minutes I thought.  When I glanced at her again she was sitting up and looking at me.

“I’m a bother aren’t I?  Did you want to say something?”

“Not really. I just came in to see if you were okay.”

“Jones, let me build you a picture.  You lying on my bed between Mama and me.  Now that would be a bed full.  Mama, still beautiful and me the monstrosity that I am. Wouldn’t that be a picture to post on the refrigerator?”

“It would wouldn’t it. Chazzy, your low self-esteem is showing again.  We had a good relationship before your mother came.  You seemed happy.  I want to go back two months and have you like you were then.  Can’t you do that for me?”

“I know Jones, but Mom wasn’t here and you had nothing to compare me to. You have to admit she is pretty.”

“Yes she is and we can’t alter the fact.  Aren’t you glad that she is?”

“Of course I am.  Why oh why couldn’t I look like her, or at least less like a freak?”

“There again, there is no answer and I can’t help you that much. I’d do anything to make you forget.  I am your friend you know.” I walked over to her and indicated I wanted her to lay down.  She had a scared look on her face, but she complied. I lay down beside her and held her hand.  Slowly it tightened in mine.

“You know the warmth I was talking about isn’t just the body heat you get from lying next to another.  It is often the warmth in your heart and mind you get from a friend who you know cares about you.” Chazzy nodded her head that she understood. For this time, I guess we were okay.

I had been concentrating on making Delores well.  Had I neglected Chazzy?  A person shouldn’t neglect their friend.  I made more of a point to give her more attention.  I suggested walks and running together. I asked Delores to describe the location where the bodies my father had buried were located.  It was of course on the old Smith property.  I think that was why my father had made me promise to keep away from there.

The buried bodies had markers such as they were. Pine trees had been planted over the resting places and I assumed this was part of the work he was required to do as handyman.  Nine trees, all at least twenty years old. They averaged six to eight inches in diameter.  The so-called cemetery was about three hundred yards in back of the house. It couldn’t be seen from the residence as it was around the shoulder of the hill. I kicked the dirt and could see it would have been easy digging. So my father had earned $9,000 doing this for Big Tony.

“I wish Dad was alive so I could ask him why he would do this. I will always remember him as a good man and I still think he was.”

“If he was anything like you, I’m sure he was.  Let’s go, I don’t want to think about people that lived and breathed under there.  Your father buried them, but just think, my father may have killed them.”

“I wouldn’t think he did personally.  Delores said he managed money.  This was probably a place to dispose of something that needed to be hidden. He was most likely paid for the service just like my father was.  Ask your Mom.  She lived with this.  I don’t think she would if Big Tony did this on his own.”

“You always find something good in everyone.”

After lunch I suggested to Chazzy that we go up attic and start organizing the jumbled piles of boxes and junk accumulated over the many decades.  There were some that took me back into my childhood. Mom had saved it all.  School papers and scrapbooks of when I played sports. “You might be interested in some of this.  My life laid bare.”

“You wouldn’t mind?”

“Nope. My life is an open book. I wish I could read all about your life.”

“You must enjoy horror stories. I made sure that nothing of mine was ever saved.” I shook my head, sorry for bringing up Chazzy’s unhappiness again.

I ran onto several  boxes of Dad’s personal papers.  It had several years of tax receipts and account books. Apparently he never disposed of anything.  I sent these down from the attic for me to go through.  Those of twenty years and before should be interesting.  I might glean some facts about his dealing with Big Tony and his family.  It might even tell me what Mom was paid as hostess to the retired mob members.

There were boxes of snapshots of the family and three family albums that had been compiled.  I found several boxes of the toys I played with.  Curious, my early toys were many that Dad had constructed himself.  Then when I was six, more toys that had to have been purchased were showing up.  Was Big Tony responsible for the better prospects of the Jones family? Somehow, I surmised it had to be.

Chazzy and I examined some of the furniture that was stored.  Most of it was serviceable, for Dad had repaired any that had become broken.  I decided that most of it would go to auction next summer when the season began. Summer people were suckers for up-attic goods.

The boxes of books went down through the attic opening to be looked over and some to be read.  Others I would take out to be looked at and hopefully bought by some of the used bookstores in the area.

It was raining outside the next day.  I gathered the boxes together and figured which ones were oldest.  The journals were meticulously kept.  Occasionally there would be a receipt between the pages, but for the most part there would be just an entry of a purchase and sometimes a little note of why something was acquired.  There were separate journals for expenditures as well.  There was even a note from Mom.  Dad had saved this after Mom received her engagement ring.

I thumbed through most of these fairly quickly. I was looking for the time when Big Tony came to be involved with my family.  As near as I could determine this happened about three years after I was born.  There was a note: A very quiet Mr. Gabelli arrived today. It took six hours to make him comfortable. No expense. Paid $1,000 as agreed to. A week later Dad bought a used 1969 Ford pickup and paid $930 for it.

Two weeks later there was another note:  Purchased new dress for Janice. She has been commanded to be present at BT’s to play hostess to a guest of his. Paid $70 for dress. Upset with Janice for agreeing to do this. She says no other alternative. I regret doing work for BT.

A week later, another note. Guest arrived and to stay two weeks. Old, maybe in eighties. Arrived with BT’s wife.  Delores is young and very pretty.  Janice likes her. Not worried about BT anymore. Janice rec.d, $400. Will be hostess again when chance arises. That was the next entry that showed.

I paused and went in search of Delores.  “Do you remember the first time you met my mother?”

“Of course I do. I was so impressed with her. She was eight years older than I was.  When Big Tony said there was going to be another woman in the house in the afternoons, I thought the worst. But then your mother came in and she was so gracious to me.  When we had a chance to speak alone, she said she came from a well-to-do family.  She had been disowned when she chose your father and his love over what her parents wanted for her.  Not once did she regret her decision.”

“That sounds like my mother. She could be comfortable in any setting.”  I went back to my father’s journals and accounts.  There were periodic notes when a quiet someone arrived, Dad earned his $1,000 to make them comfortable.  He drew extra money also for some duties that exceeded his regular wage.  One was a note that he would store BT’s safe for the winter.

This was news to me for I had never seen a safe. Of course at the age I was when this was moved, I might not have thought anything about it. After all, this was terminated when I was age ten.  Momentarily I wondered what had happened to it.  As I slowly made my way through Dad’s effects, I counted all nine of the personages that Dad had made comfortable.

I deduced that a real friendship had blossomed and that there was a common trust built between Mom, Dad, Big Tony and Delores.  I would quiz Delores more about this if she continued to stay here with Chazzy. This all ended when Big Tony disappeared. 

I couldn’t get the thought of a safe out of my mind.  Again I went in search of Delores.  “Where did Big Tony keep his safe?  I think he had my dad move it here when your summer home was closed every fall.”

“He never mentioned a safe.  This is all news to me.”

Chazzy had come through the door and was listening.  “He had a safe.  I remember it.  It was about two feet square.  He had it hidden in the cellar behind a board wall opposite where the stairs were. When I snuck down one day to see what he was doing, he had moved the boards.  At the time he was being so quiet, it was kind of scary.  He didn’t see me, but I think he heard me when I closed the cellar door, because he asked me a little bit later if I had been down there.

“I couldn’t lie and he smiled and just said if I had seen anything, to forget it.  I did until just now.”

“I wonder if it is still in the cellar?  And no Chazzy, you aren’t going to break into someone else’s house to see either.”

I got a more than usual lopsided grin.  “But I know where they keep the key, don’t I? That’s not breaking in.”

“There are people living there now.”

“They will be gone in a couple of weeks.”

“We’ll see.”

“Maybe the diamonds that Uncle Mort is searching for are in the safe.  They did belong to my father.”

“I said, we’ll see!”  We both knew we were going to check out that cellar at some later date.

I really needed to start a new novel.  My life had changed so dramatically with the two women in the house.  I suppose my every whim was being catered to.  Delores had almost completely recovered from her brain operation.  Chazzy came to me one day saying that she felt closer to her mother than she ever did.  Both were concerned that they would someday in a year or two run out of money. 

Chazzy declared that she might have to call the producer that made her horror movies and say she would do one more film.  She would be hired because this would complete the series that had been planned with the same characters.  All Delores had was what she had received for the sale of her house. I wasn’t asked and I certainly didn’t want to become too involved in any decision they would make.

For recreation when I wasn’t writing, the three of us would get into my van and go for a ride.  Almost every time it was decided to go by the old Smith property and on down to West Dummerston.  There was a convenience store there on Route 30 that we got snacks and milk, and it was here that we gassed up the van. 

The road over this way was extremely winding and you felt sometimes that if you weren’t careful you would drop right off the side of the mountain. I remember when I was little and how I was scared to death when Dad sometimes went that way.  It cut off eight miles if you wanted to get to West Dummerston from our house. Otherwise you had to travel around by way of Williamsville or Brattleboro.

Twenty-two or three-years ago, some efforts had been made to take care of the worst of it. A new section had been constructed that alleviated the portion that was the most dangerous.  For a couple of years the old section had been posted to pass at your own risk.  It was totally closed now. 

The main reason we traveled this road was to see when the residents of the old Smith property left for the winter.  We saw the people leave and followed them down off the mountain to make sure they really were going to leave. On the way back, I left Chazzy off and she found the key to the front door.

I went up the road a half mile and picked her up on my return.  She got in and Delores immediately asked, “Is the safe there?”

“No it isn’t. The wall doesn’t have any boards in front of it anymore.  There is just an empty hole where I remember seeing the safe.  Whoever made Dad disappear must have loaded it on when he was kidnapped.  That was probably why we never found him.”

“What happened to his car?  You said it was a big Cadillac.”

“It was never found either.  I do remember it was nearly out of gas the day I left.  He figured he had just enough to make it to Lapparollie’s filling station on Route 30. That’s where we have been buying our snacks.”

“Did you check to see if Big Tony bought gas there that day?”

“I didn’t that day, but the police did after I reported Big Tony missing.  I called the gas station a week later myself.  They swore he never stopped.”

“That is weird.  It is like he and the car were able to fly away.”

“I know, and I don’t think the police were too aggressive in wanting to know about my husband.  The Feds were involved in the search as well.  They wanted him to testify on some related business about money laundering he might be involved in.  One officer came to talk to me.  This was a month later.  It had been decided that Big Tony must have jumped the country---or he had been disposed of because of what his testimony would produce against one or more of his associates.  They were determined that I knew something of his whereabouts, but I didn’t.”

“Did you talk to the people he was in business with?”

“Of course.  Big Tony was well liked and many had dinner at the house with us several times.  A few had been up here to Vermont on vacation. I suppose there were a couple that would have been on the hot seat if Tony had made it to the witness stand. That was understood. A man might have to go away for a few months or even years.  That was part of doing business.”

“Did they give you any support during this time?”

“Sure right up until the time Big Tony was declared dead.  After that they didn’t and I didn’t expect any help.  They might not of, and there never was a time when they suspected Big Tony had done anything he wasn’t supposed to.  His books were always in order and there never was any money missing. He prided himself on being honest in his dealings.”  We were quiet as we returned to Brattleboro.  Now there were three things missing, Big Tony, the Cadillac and the safe. It was a month before any of these questions would be answered.

Dad had never put wood for the fireplace in the cellar until after the October rains.  Habit and maybe a little nostalgia I guess, I always did the same. This was stacked on five empty pallets.  They were always tipped up before the wood was brought in to sweep out from under them. As I tipped them back against the backboard wall, the middle section sounded hollow.

My God, this had to be where Dad kept the safe when he brought it over from the Smith residence for security.  He evidently did it when no one was around. Would I find it behind the boards? I was excited and rushed upstairs to tell Delores and Chazzy. They were drinking coffee in the kitchen and looked up at me as I entered.  They must have read the excitement in my face.

“What’s up Jones? You strike gold digging around in the cellar?”

“I don’t know, but I suspect I know where Dad hid the safe when it was here.  Come downstairs and we will look.  I suppose I should have looked first, but if we are going to be disappointed, I wanted us all to be together.”

Five years Dad and Mom had been dead.  I had followed his footprints blindly all of the years he had been gone.  I first moved the five pallets and looked at the boards.  I could see now they weren’t nailed.  There were cleats holding the ends in place and as the wall wasn’t extended to the ceiling the boards lifted up one by one.  The safe came into view, just as Dad had placed it twenty years ago if my assumption was correct.  He had most likely moved it here before he knew Big Tony was missing.

There was a light coat of rust all over it.  When I twirled the combination knob, it moved without resistance. I turned to the women and asked,  “What’s the combination?” All I received was a shrug of the shoulders.  I started putting the boards back in place.

“Why are you hiding it again?”

“What about your Uncle Mort?  What if he is coming in upstairs right now?  Do you want him to see the safe?”

Chazzy grabbed the next board and fitted it into place.  I smiled and said, “This calls for beer.”  We spent the rest of the afternoon speculating on what could be enclosed in our find.  Then we went on trying to think of where we could find the combination.  We ended up deciding to give it a month and then we would hire someone to open it for us.  I hesitated when I said, ‘us.’  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound proprietary.”

“You can.  You have as much right to it as we do.  Chazzy saw it once for a few seconds.  That gives her some rights.  You found the safe here so that gives you some.  I’m willing to share unless there is something inside that says your dad didn’t play square with Big Tony.  That in my mind is an impossibility.”

“We’ll wait until it is opened.  We may be arguing over an empty vessel.”  I tried to get the outline of a new book put down on paper, but the mystery that was right here before me took up most of my thoughts.  I listed a few known quantities.

1.  Big Tony sent Delores home on a Thursday, September 4th.
2.  That same day he had given Dad a box of Chazzy’s toys.
3.  Big Tony left the house about ten in the morning of the 5th.
4.  He didn’t get gas at Lapparolli’s.
5.  No trace of him or his car were ever found.
6.  Big Tony’s associates disclaim any knowledge of his disappearance.

I showed Delores what I had listed. “Is this all you can remember that happened around that time?”

“I can’t remember much.  I do remember there was the tail end of a tropical storm that was over us about that time.  It rained for days and the wind blew terribly hard. I know I was soaked when I got into the car to come home. I was uncomfortable all the way.”  This didn’t have any bearing on what happened to Big Tony, so I discounted it.

Chazzy was having trouble finding enough to keep occupied.  “Jones, I’m going through the boxes of toys.  I’ll spread everything out and you can tell me if there is anything you want to keep.”

“Sure, go ahead.  I really have to concentrate on starting another book.  I haven’t seen anything of that box of toys that belonged to you.  Maybe they will show up at the same time.  There is still a lot of stuff we haven’t looked at up in the attic.  Be my guest.”

“You just want me to get all dirty and dusty.”

“I’ll never tell.”

I heard Chazzy go up into the attic.  I stepped out into the living room and viewed the toys she had scattered about, shaking my head at the disorder. Delores followed me back into my office.  “Marvin, do you have any feelings for Chazzy?  I mean other than lust for her body?  I know you have that because I can see the way you look at her.”

“Truth?  I would like to make love to her, but more importantly, I would like to start dating her with the goal of asking her to be my wife.  It’s just that her mind is so set against ever being a mate to anyone.  Someday I am going to have enough money to make her face whole, so if we have children together, they won’t be ashamed to be seen with her. For myself, her looks don’t bother me and I could marry her.  The trouble is she would want to remain hidden.  That’s not good.”

“I understand where you are coming from.  I’d like to try a little experiment.  It would mean that I would have to have your promise not to go further than Chazzy is willing to go.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Okay this may seem very extreme, but I thought maybe after Chazzy was asleep tonight, I would sleep in your bed and you take my place in hers.  That would give her some idea what it is like to wake up in bed next to a man. A man that cares for her.”

I was shocked.  “No, I won’t do it.  That is making a decision for Chazzy that only she can make for herself.”

“Why not?  That is almost what happened to me when I was seventeen.  Mort put me into Big Tony’s bed.  We were in love before we had breakfast that morning.”

“That could be, but Chazzy is thirty years old and has had a world of hurts. It wouldn’t work.  It would be different if she came and crawled into my bed and I woke up with her beside me.  Just think how much I would treasure her then.”  Delores left me to my writing, shaking her head as she closed the door behind her.

Ten minutes later Chazzy called down from upstairs.  “I found my childhood toys.  I found them in a blanket chest where your mother must have stored them.  My favorite doll is here and a tea set and all of my board games.  I even have the Chinese checkers game with the clay marbles.  All sixty marbles are here and not one of them has been lost.  Dad often played checkers with me and cautioned me not to lose them.  He said he had them made especially for me.” She came down the stairs lugging a large box.

“I remember them. Mom played checkers with me until she said maybe we ought to keep them for you.  She said that someday you might come and get them.  I was the one that noticed they all were numbered from one to sixty.”

“I didn’t remember them having any numbers. Let me look at them.”   We each took one.  The marbles were made of clay and had a light glaze of six different colors for each ten.  One through ten was a color and eleven through twenty, etc., were etched into the clay before they were glazed.  It had to be a one of a kind set.  The checkerboard itself didn’t seem unique in any way. Puzzling to say the least.  “Let’s take time to play a game.  I bet I can beat you.”

I laughed at Chazzy because of her wanting to recapture her childhood. “Can’t, I need to write.  Play with your mother.  Play for another hour and then I will look over all of these toys you have scattered about.”  I went back to my office. I am primarily a mystery writer, but my new book featured a woman detective solving a cold case.  My outline was set, I had a list of characters, and I had the crime ready to happen. 

I had been concentrating so hard, I didn’t realize that there was another person out in the living room until voices were raised. I stepped out.  Mortimer Michaels was standing there arguing with Delores.  Chazzy was standing off to the side. 

He was getting more and more belligerent as the conversation went on.  “Tell me about the diamonds.  When your head was scrabbled, you mentioned them several times.  I want to know all about them.”

“Mort, I keep telling you, I don’t remember anything except Big Tony saying he was going to buy some so Chazzy would have them in case something happened to him.  He was being realistic about his job and who his associates were.”

“I should have popped him when he hooked up with the family he did.  I could have, you know.  I was offered enough, but you were pregnant at the time. I should have popped you at the same time.  Look at the freak that crawled out of you.”

Uncle or not, this was more than Chazzy could take. Mort got a gun out as she came for him, but he didn’t have a chance to use it.  Gladis Shadis was back in the ring and her opponent never stood a chance.  I swear she had more moves than I had ever seen at a match before. It ended with a flying mare. Before she was done with him he was whimpering as bad as a dog after a whipping.  The living room was a wreck and looked like a cyclone had come through.  The toys were scattered everywhere worse than before, some even broken.  The marbles for the checker game had suffered the same fate.

“My arm is broken.” 

“Suffer, you son-of-a-bitch.  You would have shot Chazzy if you could have. What a brother you turned out to be.”

I was being practical.  “What are we going to do with him?”

Delores stared at her brother where he lay in the corner.  “I’d give him three choices. He can get in his car and go.  You can call the police and say he broke in with a gun and threatened us.  Or I can make a phone call.  They’ll take care of him.  If we go that route, I promise you we will never have him bother us again.”

“Delores, I’m your brother.  I need help, but you can’t turn me in.  Who were you going to call?”

“I was thinking Monkey Boy Jipson.  He might take unkindly to you bothering Big Tony’s daughter or his widow.”

A look of horror came over Mort’s face. “You can’t do that. He’d kill me.”

“Maybe not, but you might wish he had.”

Uncle Mort looked at me.  “Please help me into my car.  I’ll make it as far as I can.”

“Okay, but let me splint your arm for you.  It is the left one isn’t it?”

Mort nodded.  I got him standing and then into a chair and pulled his jacket off.  He screamed as I jostled him.  I sent Chazzy down for three paint stirrers and some duct tape I knew were on my workbench. His forearm was already swollen.  Being as careful as I could, I positioned the splints and wrapped his arm in tape. Thank God this wasn’t a compound break. 

I fed him four extra strength Advils.  “You better have that looked at as soon as possible. Keep your mouth shut about what happened.  Those women are getting pissed at you for bothering them and Delores might make that call anyway.” I went out and turned his car around so that he was headed down the driveway. We watched him as he maneuvered to Sunset Lake Road and disappeared from sight.

When we came back inside, I asked,  “Who is Monkey Boy?”

“Someone that was in the business.  He would work a person over until he was no more than a jibbering monkey.  Mort didn’t know it and few do, but Monkey Boy has been dead for more than three years. His reputation lives on, though.  I am going to make a call.  I think if someone visits him with a warning, he’ll never bother us again. How did you know how to fix his arm?”

“I was a boy scout as a kid.  That was standard first aid and I earned a merit badge for performing it on another scout as a demonstration. I never thought I would have to use the knowledge.  Let’s straighten up and then get something to eat.  I could use a beer.  How are you doing, Chazzy?”

“Good, haven’t had that much fun since I left the ring. Jones, thank you for doing what you did for Uncle Mort.  I didn’t mean to break his arm.  I guess I’m not too sorry, but he shouldn’t have to suffer. For all he said about me, I don’t hate him like Mom does.”  All Delores said was that it would do him good. 

We picked up and put most of the toys back into the boxes they came from, not bothering to look at them today.  The clay marbles had rolled all over the room. We found all but two to fill the spaces on the checkerboard.  We got flashlights to peer into the corners and found one more that had rolled under the couch.  The light Chazzy was holding swung by the hearth in front of the fireplace. “I see it.  It’s right by the stone there.”  She bent over and picked it up.  “It’s broken into three pieces.”

I stretched my hand out for it.  She dumped all three pieces into my palm and walked across the room to her mother.  I passed my light over it to see how the marble was made. There lay a large cut diamond sparkling in all of its glory.  I stood there thinking.  Uncle Mort, I was almost sure, was willing to kill for this. Also if the other clay marbles held a diamond, and I was sure they did, Chazzy was a rich woman. 

Then I thought, would Delores want to claim them for herself?  She might.  I didn’t know her that well even though I had come to enjoy her company. What would this do to my relationship with both women?  How would it change Chazzy and would she want to leave?  I knew I didn’t want her to.  I could close my hand and neither would ever know.

Oh hell!  “Chazzy and Delores, come here.”  I held my open hand out for them to look at.  Curious they examined what it held.

“Jones, the marbles! The diamonds are in the marbles. We found the diamonds.”

“Looks that way.  You two are richer than you were just an hour ago.”

“I’m not.  Big Tony gave those marbles to Chazzy.  They can only belong to her.”

“Well I’m saying they belong to all of us.  I’m staying right here with Jones.  And Mom, I want you to stay here with me.  How much do you think this diamond is worth?  It is bigger than I have ever seen.  It must barely have been covered by the clay.”

“I have no idea.  You can get it appraised at most any jewelers.  They’ll be wondering where you got it though.  They might ask some embarrassing questions. This is something you will want to think through before you make a move.”

“You’re smart, Jones. I’ll bet you can figure it out.  Hey, I feel rich, let’s go out for pizza and beer. It’s time people in Brattleboro, Vermont knew there was a freak living here.” 

We were almost ready to go out the door when I asked a question. “Are you going to leave a half-million dollars worth of diamonds on the living room table?  I think we should put them out of sight at least.”  I was smiling at the expressions that came over my two companions’ faces.

There were many changes in the air.  Do you think we rushed right out and had the stone appraised, or that we broke open the clay marbles to look at the rest of the diamonds?  No, we didn’t.  Basically we couldn’t decide what to do.  We couldn’t even come to agreement about where to hide the one we had and kept moving it to different hideaways until we thought we had a better place to store it.  Finally, we rented a safe deposit box and we took the one diamond and the marbles and stored them there in the Merchants Bank.  We slept much better that night.

You noticed I kept saying we? If I said otherwise, I was shot down every time.  I finally came to terms and accepted it.  There were other adjustments as well.  Delores was a big help with some of these.  I was writing a detective story.  Delores had her whole life associated with those who performed criminal acts. 

As I came up with a situation that she might know something about, we would discuss it together.  Many of my assumptions about criminals were so wrong.  In many ways I came to understand their thought processes and I knew my new novel was going to have a lot of truth in it the public would recognize.  I’m sure my readers would let me know after the book was published.

The words were coming to me at a rate I had never known before. They were going right into the script.  We all were health conscious now.  I had always been that way and I had Chazzy thinking of every morsel that she consumed.  Delores was fast learning to do the same.  I also had us on an exercise regimen.  This kept my body buff, Delores trim, and Chazzy---my God I can’t begin to describe her.

Chapter Four

I mentioned one morning that she certainly hadn’t taken long to overcome her uncle that time.  “I wrestled a little in high school, so I know some of the take-downs.”

“Ha, you wouldn’t last any longer then Uncle did.”

“Okay maybe. I’ll tell you what, the next rainy day when we don’t want to go out, we’ll push the furniture out of the way and we’ll wrestle right in the living room.  It’s carpeted and no one will get hurt.”

“You’re on, Jones.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”  Two days later it was cold and wet out.  It hadn’t snowed yet and might not for another two or three weeks, but it could.  After breakfast, I pushed the furniture to the walls and we had about the same amount of space as you would have in a half-regulation size ring.

“No holds barred?  Wrestle just as if we were two men or two women battling for the championship?”

“Sounds good to me.  What happens if we touch each other where it might not be appropriate?”

“I won’t mind unless I think you are doing it to gain an unfair advantage.  What are we wearing for this All-American, no holds barred event?”

“Sweats, I think.  That should stop any carpet burns when I bounce your butt across the floor.”

“We’ll see who bounces who.”  We were nearly of a size.  I figured I was slightly stronger, but Chazzy had the advantage of knowing many more holds than I did.  Delores was going to be referee.

We started easy, feeling each other’s moves out. Before I knew it, I was pinned for the first fall.  I suppose I was more aware of the attributes this Amazon had and I couldn’t get away from the fact that this was a woman I had in my hands.  I took the next fall with brute strength.

She conceded that I was pretty good.  It took almost twenty minutes for the next one with neither of us able to gain enough leverage to complete the count of three. It ended with me having my arm between her legs, lifting her buttocks off the floor.  I was practically laying across her chest. I knew I could get her shoulders down to the floor, but I also knew I couldn’t keep her down long enough for the count.

Suddenly I was aware how I held her.  It seemed as if my arm was against a fire. The other hand had cupped her breast as I held her down.  I looked into her eyes. I knew then how aware she was of me at the same time and in the same way.  I slowly relaxed and drew my arm back from between her legs.  She tightened them together at first and she seemed to trap it there. Then she relaxed and her butt found the floor. I inched backward and removed the hand that cupped the breast.  It seemed as if a look of disappointment crossed her features momentarily.

As I started to my knees, she just said, “Jones.”

I had both hands free now.  I took them and this time I cupped her face and leaned down and kissed her.  I opened my eyes to see how this was being received.  Her eyes were closed and she had a look of contentment on her face. When her eyes opened, she smiled.  “You win.”  Then she thought a moment. “No, I won. Let me up please.  Match is over.  I think there is still coffee.”  I looked around for Delores.  She had left the room. When, I couldn’t say.

I joined Chazzy for coffee. We both avoided saying anything about what had just happened.  I knew and she did too, that our relationship had changed, but we weren’t ready to address it yet.  “I’m going to write.”

“Okay, I’ll start dinner then.”  I left the door to my office open and I could hear Chazzy and Delores talking.  I heard the front door open and I assumed one of them went out.  A short time later I could hear Chazzy singing the childhood verse she was apt to sing when she was happy.  “One, two, buckle my shoe,” came floating in from the kitchen.  I guess everything was all right with her world.

Words were flowing and I was concentrating.  Suddenly I realized the words to a different ditty were being voiced.  I listened a minute.  I realized she was trying to remember the words and how they went.  “Two, two, pennies for you.”  She couldn’t seem to get beyond this, although she tried different numbers and words.  She must have given up because she was back to “One, two, buckle my shoe.”

I brought up what we should do about Thanksgiving.  “I usually invite Jackie.  I suppose I shouldn’t this year.  She has her fiancé now, but she still might want to come.”

“Is this the Jackie that helped with my surgery?”

“Yes.”

Chazzy said, “I would like to see her again.  I liked Sam too.  She was so good to Mom, I wish they would come.”

I called that evening from my office. “Oh, I’m so glad you called.  I was hoping to get an invitation. Sam has been wanting to come up for weeks now.  There is just one hitch.  He has a friend that was going to hang out with us during the week.  Can we bring him as well?”

“Sure, the more the merrier. Delores is still here with Chazzy.”

“Great.  Marv, this friend of Sam’s is a surgeon.  He specializes in reconstructive surgery. He might take a look at Chazzy and give her some idea what it would take to help with her looks.”

“Okay, but I don’t want her scared off.  She still has the most fragile psyche of anyone I ever knew.”

“Worse than I was?”

“Much worse.”  I announced to my two women that we would be having company for the holiday.  “Jackie and Sam will be here and another person, I don’t even know his name.  Jackie just said he was a friend of Sam’s.”

Chazzy’s face clouded up immediately.  “I so liked Jackie and Sam, but now there will be another.  I’ll be so uncomfortable.”

“Don’t be.  Jackie is aware of how you feel about meeting new people.  She wouldn’t impose on anyone here if she thought it wasn’t wise. I’ll make sure you have a good time.  I’ll even let you eat whatever you want.” This was now a standing joke, as Chazzy was the one that would caution even me about what should be eaten.  I guess she didn’t worry too much as I heard her singing later. It was her struggling to remember the ditty her father taught her.

Plans were put into place for the dinner.  Delores and I did the shopping per usual. While we were away, I clued her in on the personage that was coming for dinner. “Chazzy is thirty years old and has never had a life.  I know what she needs done and maybe this person can give her some hope. Again this isn’t for me or her altogether. Someday, and I hope soon, she will fall in love, get married and have children.  She needs to know her children aren’t ashamed of how she looks when they get old enough to notice.”

“You have one thing correct.  She is in love already.  Getting married won’t be too difficult if you ask her to be your wife.  The children part may be much more difficult.  She might turn you down if you insist on having babies.”

“I wouldn’t do that.  I was hoping for one or two kids, but I wouldn’t insist on it.  I am planning to propose at Christmas time.”

“You’re going to make a wonderful son-in-law.”

“What about you?  What is holding you back in finding someone?”

“I can’t. I know in my heart that Big Tony is dead, but what if he isn’t?  If he came back and found me with another, I would feel so bad I would die.”

“I don’t know if he will ever be found.  I don’t know how I could help either.”

“I know.  Impossible situation, isn’t it? If I only knew what might have happened I could accept him being gone.  There is just no logical explanation to his disappearance.”

Our guests arrived on Tuesday.  Jackie had brought several bottles of Asti. This loosened Chazzy up enough so she forgot that she might not be as beautiful as her mother or Jackie.  Wednesday was bake day and the turkey went into the oven Thursday morning for dinner at two.  After dinner we were sleepy from all we had eaten and I headed for my bedroom to lie down.

I dozed right off.  I felt the bed sink when someone laid down beside me. As I had my back to the door I couldn’t tell who had joined me.  I hoped it wasn’t Jackie.  I turned over.  “Pete Shipman tells me he is a plastic surgeon.  He wants to examine my face.  Should I let him?”

“You’re asking me?  I don’t see any harm in it.  It is not anything that you have to decide on today.  The more information you have the better off you will be.”

“Do you want me to have surgery done?  Mama said you two had talked about it a little. She also said that she was surprised at the answer you gave her.  Tell me what you said to her.”

“Chazzy, I told her that the way you look didn’t bother me that much.  I also said you had learned to live with the way you look although you hated yourself for being this way.  My point was that if you fell in love, married and had children, they would be the ones to suffer.  They might not cope with your looks very well when they got old enough to compare you with the mothers of other children.”

“Jones, do you ever hope to be married to someone and have children?”

“It would be nice.  Kind of like every man’s dream.”

“Okay, I’m going to talk to him.  Would you come out and listen to what he has to say?”

“Sure. Chazzy, would you let me kiss you?”  She would.

It took the doctor an hour and a half probing Chazzy’s face and asking innumerable questions before he said what he thought a surgeon would have to contend with.

“The first move would be to have your teeth removed and dentures installed.  Your upper and lower jaws align okay, but when your cheek bones stopped developing, the top ones tended to tip out.  They could be straightened, but that would take two years or more.  There should be no other work done until they are straight.  I assume you wouldn’t want to wait that long.

“Your lower jaw recedes somewhat and that would entail adding to it.  This could be built up by adding a couple slivers of bone removed from somewhere else.  There will be extra cartilage removed from your prominent nose, and that might be used. I couldn’t make a decision on that until some X-rays are taken. We are going for looks here, but again I’m assuming you won’t want anything too radical. It will be just a general reshaping of what is here.

“Okay, one reason your nose is so prominent is because your face is flat from not developing normally.  Again we would be using bone slivers from a different part of your body to fill out your cheek bones and make your face more round and full.  The facial structure you have is filled with sinus cavities and from your answers to the questions I asked, they are fully functional.  So we have to build out for looks without disturbing the underlying structure. What applies here is, if it works, don’t fix it.

“Your nose is very prominent now, but that is one of the most frequent operations that is performed, so no problem there.  When your nose is reshaped, there will be less bone and cartilage removed than you might anticipate.

“I can’t determine too much about your eyebrows here. They are prominent, and I need the X-ray.  If they are solid bone mass, some of it could be pared away.  There are sinus cavities in that location as well, so any work on the bone would have to be done with care. Off hand I would suggest that the eyebrows be shaped and the rest depilated to prevent hair from growing into unwanted areas.  Your decision.

“Now I have left the shape of your lips to the last. Yours are overly large and your mouth entrance is very wide. We can take a series of tucks on both sides to make the opening smaller and we can thin your lips as much as you want.  I can project how you would look after every procedure.

“I must warn you that this is going to be downright painful after each operation is completed and you are healing.  You probably will dribble and drool until work around your teeth and jaw is completed. This will be only until you get used to the new shape. The upper portion of your face shouldn’t cause too much discomfort, but everyone is different. 

“This is a big undertaking and you might wish you had never started on it. If you choose me to do the procedures, I couldn’t promise that you would come out beautiful, but you certainly would look more like anyone you might meet while shopping for groceries.  Any questions?”

“What is this going to cost?  We will find the money some way if Chazzy wants it done.”

“Marvin, it will be pretty damned expensive.  Of course if you were married to the lady and she was on your insurance, the out of pocket cost would go down.  Just removing the teeth and replacing them could save $5,000.  Occasionally I have requests to have a documentary done on some difficult procedures.  I could check to see.  This would certainly qualify, I should think.”

“I guess I had better propose to her and add her name to my insurance.  That would mean she still would have to wait three months before the first operation.  I should do this as soon as possible.”  I hadn’t looked at Chazzy while I was saying this. I did now, but couldn’t read her expression.

“Jones, we have to talk.”  She looked at our guests.  “Please excuse us for a few minutes.”

She took my hand and led me into her room. “Marvin Jones, this is my life and my face we are discussing here.  I’m thirty years old and well able to make my own decisions about both.  What if I don’t want surgery?  What if I don’t want to marry you?”

I realized I should not have said anything in front of the people in the other room about proposing.  Actually I was pretty damned proud of Chazzy for not going along with the program as I had set it out.  Time to make amends. “Chastity Smith, would you become my wife? I love you very much and I very much would like you to say yes. This is so important to me.  The other, the operation, etc., we can discuss later and make a decision.”

I had crossed the room and was standing with my back to her bed as she came away from the closed door.  Chazzy was approximately nine feet away.  I couldn’t read her expression as she advanced with determination to me.  She then was standing right in front of me. Suddenly she hit me with both hands.  Hit me just inside my shoulders which toppled me back onto the bed with her following. More than 475 pounds bounced onto the bed and it didn’t survive. One side rail broke dumping us onto the floor.

“Kiss me before the others come in.  Jones, I love you and yes I will marry you.”  We were still kissing when the door burst open to see what had caused all of the noise.  Friday morning before Jackie, Sam, and Pete left, Chazzy and I went down to the municipal center and applied for a license to marry. December 1st I took my wife to bed.

Delores was more or less left to her own devices.  Wanting us newlyweds to have as much privacy as possible, she went into town and applied at several retail establishments for the Christmas rush.  She ended up in a men’s store on Main Street as saleslady. I set about teaching my wife the joys that came with being married. Except for the few times Jackie had visited, I had been without sex since she and I had divorced.

Chazzy was totally inexperienced and as I led her into the world of the physical, she said if she knew it would be this great, she wondered why she had waited.  “But I’m so thankful I did wait for you.  Jones, do you remember the hard case I came here with?”

“Yes.” 

“Haven’t you ever wondered what was in it?”

“Maybe.”

“I have tapes of several on my matches as Gladis Shadis, the monster wrestler.  I also  have a copy of the movies I made. Would you like to see me in action?”

I definitely was interested, so one afternoon she put the tape into the VCR and we laid down on our bed to watch it.  I have to say the action and the dialog was pretty amateurish.  I swear it was Chazzy, as Jan Mortimer, that carried the whole film.  I’m not saying she could act, because she wasn’t that much better than the others.  The camera operator knew what he was doing, or maybe it was the director.  The sequence of shots he took of Jan would focus on her horrible face.  Always the villain, you came to hate her character, but then there would be several scenes displaying her body to the best advantage.

If the audience watching the movie was feeling what I felt, by the end of the film, you hoped she wouldn’t die as all horrible villains must. You were drawn into the story and sympathy for this beautiful, poor, unfortunate character and hated to see her going to her death.  There were tears in my eyes when the credits started rolling.

She didn’t die, for I had her in my arms kissing the tears that rolled down my cheeks. Delores found us asleep and locked in each others’ arms when she came in from working.

Chazzy was still trying to remember the words to the ditty her father had taught her more than twenty years ago.  She said she couldn’t make any sense out of the words at the time and thought they weren’t supposed to. She felt there were six lines. “I can remember the first two lines and maybe  the last one.  It was much like the nursery rhyme that starts with one, two, buckle my shoe.”

“Repeat what you do remember.”

“Dad was always standing and he always motioned with his hands.”

“Well stand and act it out.”

 I watched intently as she commenced.  “One, two, pennies for you. Two, three, come sit by me. The last line I remember was, One, two, this is a clue. I started left hand, right hand, and the last one was right hand.”

“Chazzy, was this before or after you saw Big Tony down in the cellar with the safe?”

My wife paused trying to go back in her mind to that distant time. “I can’t remember.  I do know it was the only summer I was up here in Vermont.  I made no connection so I can’t really remember. Why?”

“I suspect from what you said was the last line, it isn’t the words that matter. It is the numbers before the line. I suggest that this is the combination to the safe he was imprinting in your mind.”

“Oh God, I’ll never remember.  He made me say it so many times too.  I thought I would never forget it, but I have.”

“Well stand up and sing it and keep on doing it.  There are only the first ten numbers he would use.  You have one, two and three. How about four?  He might have used that.”

She started again, and once again, and once again. “And three, four, down on the floor.  That’s it.  I got the next line, I’m positive.  I can do this, I know I can.” Numbers and impossible lines were tumbling from her mouth.

“Stop a minute, let’s think about this. I would guess the next line might rhyme with me, which would make the number three again.”  Chazzy spent another hour and finally gave up.  She thought the numbers might be---four, three, but wasn’t sure. “Try again tomorrow.  The safe has been there for twenty years.  It will come to you eventually.”

My book came out in time for the Christmas holiday.  It was heavily promoted and I had numerous media interviews.  Interspersed with these, there were the book signings. The holiday fell on a Saturday and I wanted to be sure I was home for Christmas eve.

I reached there from a late interview about two in the afternoon.  I came in and saw Delores and Chazzy (Mrs. Jones) as I loved to refer to her, in the kitchen.  I hung my coat behind the door and collected a kiss.  Delores offered up her lips as well. Both were giggling and happy.  I surmised that maybe the stock of cheer we had laid in, had been broached early.

We had agreed among all of us that we would not buy expensive gifts.  Chazzy said, “We got our Christmas present early.  It is on the dining room table covered with a bath towel.  It is going to cost you some labor to clean up the mess we had getting to it.”

I went in and lifted the towel.  There piled neatly in the center of the table were stacks of money.  “You remembered the rhyme didn’t you?  You opened the safe and found this money.  How much is there?”

“We didn’t count it, but there are thousands.  The one hundred dollar bills are all banded into stacks of fifty.  We thought at first it was counterfeit, but they seem to be used bills and the numbers are all different. There are a couple of notes here to me explaining it all and where it came from. 

“Also there is a bundle of receipts showing where he bought the diamonds.  They are numbered and match the number on the clay marbles.  Each diamond is described fully as to shape, weight, color and clarity. The note said that when Chazzy sold them, if there was an increase in value, she would only have to pay tax on that amount. There is also paperwork showing that the money is legitimate and that all taxes have been paid as this was salary earned.”

“Why would Big Tony leave a note like that?  It is as if he knew he was going to die.”

“I can answer that. I should know, after all I was married to him for twelve years.  We often discussed what he was doing. The last conversation we had before I left that last day, was what he was going to have to testify to.  Tony worked mostly with the legitimate businesses that were under the family umbrella. 

“However, he did know what was going on in the less savory segments of the family.  Some of the soldiers in those endeavors were the ones who sent those items that came up here to Vermont to be taken care of.  They damned sure didn’t want any of that to come out.

“So he always knew that he was living on the edge of danger all of the time. I guess he was right, because after we talked about that, all I have to remember is a kiss and a hug and an ‘I love you.’ He was thinking of us though, and this was his last wish, or he wouldn’t have left all of this for Chazzy and me.”

“I’m sure he was thinking of both of you. Chazzy, what were the final lines that gave you the combination to the safe?  What is the mess I have to clean up you were talking about?”

“The mess is the firewood that we threw all over the cellar when we were so anxious to see if we could open the safe. We didn’t pick it up because we may want to put the money back into it. I wrote the clues down. Here they are.”

I took the paper and looked at it.

1, 2  pennies for you
2, 3  come sit by me
3, 4  down on the floor
4, 3  never on a bee
4, 4  or big apple core
1, 2  this is a clue

“I kept singing it and finally it came right out.  I had Mama write it down the third time I sang it, when I knew I had it correct.  Aren’t you proud of little old me?” Chazzy was sitting in my lap as she said this.

“When do you want to count the money?”

“Right now.  Actually we have counted it.  There are fifty-six bundles of bills and there are $5,000 in each bundle.  That means there is $280,000 here. It just about fills the safe up. I think we should put it back.  It makes me awful nervous sitting on the table.”

“I think so too.”

“So Marv, what are you going to do with your share?”

“What do you mean?  This is yours, Delores.”

“No it isn’t. I’m doing just what Chazzy did.  I’m splitting this three ways just as she did with the diamonds.  I think Big Tony would want me to do that, especially the way you have treated me.  Doesn’t make any difference anyway.  That’s the way it is going to be.”

“Okay, if you insist.  Mine is going to help pay for the operations on Chazzy.  I don’t think the operations should start until spring because I’m so tied up with this book.  In three months there may be some help with insurance as well.  By spring, I’ll be free to be with Chazzy when she is being operated on. I want to be there with her every minute.”

“Jones, you make me so happy!”  Tears were running down my wife’s face.

The winter was a time of much happiness for all of us. Delores was having fun as a saleslady in the men’s clothing store.  She was meeting people and occasionally she was being asked for a date.  She always refused, but she knew if Big Tony’s whereabouts could be established, she might start going out.

For Chazzy and me, if I didn’t have to be somewhere dealing with my book, we might just go back to bed when Delores left.  Chazzy was receiving all the love I could possibly bestow on her.  Love that she had been denied most of her life because of her looks.

In February we made two trips to Boston.  Pete Shipman needed the X-rays to bring before the producer who was associated with the AMA who might be interested in filming a documentary.  Chazzy was to meet with him in the second meeting after Pete had sketches made of what she would look like when all was completed.

Pete, on a more personal level, explained to both of us what Chazzy could expect as far as length of time being in the operating room.  Also, the time, the pain and the discomfort she would experience while being healed between each operation. I shuddered when he was finished and I told Chazzy she didn’t have to go through this.  I loved her just as she was.  She was adamant in going forward and couldn’t wait for it to commence.

The first operation was to have her teeth removed.  One change from what was first indicated, the bottom teeth would stay, but would be straightened after all the procedures had been completed.  It was found that her lower jaw was somewhat weak and it was determined it might be too fragile and would fracture if the good solid teeth were removed.  The false plate for the upper jaw where the protruding (buck) teeth, after some difficulty, could be made to fit without too much problem.

This operation took place in April with the crew who was doing the filming in attendance.  There was only a two-day stay in the hospital.  Mostly so the filming could be completed on the second day. The plate was installed immediately after the teeth were removed. The adjustments on the plate were done by a competent dentist right here in Brattleboro.

It seemed as if in the months that followed, Chazzy was always healing from some part of her face that was under reconstruction.  Pete and Jackie, both promised me that there would be few scars that would be visible. The operation to make her chin more prominent started with the incision behind her lower lip and there was no scar at all.

All of a sudden, here was my wife with normal shaped teeth and a quite prominent chin.  There was a long way to go.  The cheek bones and the nose, cosmetic sure, but necessary to the overall look.  By September all that was left to do was her too prominent eyebrows.

“Can I take a couple of months off from being constantly operated on?  I might even wait until next spring.”

“I think it would be better if we finished it up immediately.  I promise two more weeks and then you can settle in and get used to the new you.  The producer of the documentary wants this finished and I can’t say we are done until the operation above your eyes is completed.”

Chazzy shook her head in resignation and on September fifteenth the reconstruction was complete. The operation reforming her unsightly lips was especially noteworthy and they were beautiful.  Her nose was still a little prominent, but not overly so. She had lost some weight because she had been on soft food and liquids so much.

The other major change came as she felt more at ease going shopping. We now went frequently out to dine.  Occasionally she had some panic attacks, but over time I think these will disappear.

All of this time that I had been in the waiting room while Chazzy was in the operating room, I was working on a project of my own. I decided I would try writing a screen play.  Kind of a beast to beauty plot which was just the reverse of the movies she had made.  It would take much work, but by next spring I might float it by the producer that had made Chazzy’s two movies. 

Time would tell if he was interested.  He might be, because her body was as beautiful as ever.  With the new face, the director had a lot to work with. The director would not be the one that had directed the first two films.  I wanted better for Chazzy than what he was capable of.  We would see if I got that far, anyway.

We were back to walking and running again for exercise.  Now when we met someone they always waved and did not look the other way when they saw Chazzy. We were going further all the time as well.  This was the greatest time of the year, with the leaves changing to their fall brilliance.

We now were going as far on the Ravine Road to where it pitched down toward West Dummerston.  This was where the old and new sections separated.  The old section was totally impassable, as the road had slid down into the ravine. You could look over the bank from the new section and see the scar that remained when half the mountain took off down-slope  years ago.  There was still some eroding going on and there was no way to stop it.

Looking at it from where we were standing, it was two hundred yards down to where the old road crossed the side of the mountain.  From that point it was three or four hundred yards down to the bottom where a small brook wound down toward Route 30 and the West River.

Chapter Five

A cold chill went through me. I said nothing to Chazzy.  I wanted to do some checking just to prove my thought wrong.  I was slow running back home.  Not because I was tired, but because I was thinking. I dug around and found the note that I had jotted down about September 4th and 5th.  I had six entries.  Then I remembered what Delores had said about it raining very hard at that particular time. Should I have made a seventh entry?

How could I find out if that was the date the old road became totally impassable.  I went over to the Dummerston Town Clerk’s office and posed the question.  “Do you have any record of when the old portion of the Ravine Road became impassable?  If there isn’t a record, would you know anyone on the town road crew that would remember back twenty years?”

I was put in touch with a pick and shovel man that had been on the work detail at that time. “Yep, the road was there on the third of September because we scraped the new section.  When we were bringing in gravel to fill the washouts where we had scraped the Tuesday before, we discovered that the old road had disappeared.  We put up a new sign saying the road was no longer open. That was on the following Monday.  That any help to you?”

“Maybe.  I was just curious.  I used to go up that road when I was a kid and I was always afraid the stones above that road would come down on us when we drove by.” 

“Could have happened, boy.  The town had struggled for years to keep that from happening and that’s why they built the new portion. There was a lot of townspeople against making the change.  They did see it was a smart move when the whole side of the mountain let go and took the road with it.” I left him after listening to several odd things that had happened in the years he had worked on the road crew.

So during a period of six days an event had happened, but no one knew just when. Had Big Tony gone down that road?  He might have if he was short of gas as it was a little closer to Lapparolli’s gas pumps.  What next?  How could I discover or disprove the fact that Big Tony might have found his final resting place?

You couldn’t dig for him and the car.  What had slid down had to be earth, rocks, sand, clay and trees all jumbled together. I came to this conclusion when I carefully went down to the bottom of the ravine.  The slide had damned up the brook and made a small pond for awhile.  Over the twenty years, the backed up water had drained away, washing all of the clay, sand and soil away, leaving just the larger stones and criss-crossed trees.  Nothing to be seen I was interested in.  If a car was in there, it had to have stopped further up the hill.

I came to the conclusion that if Big Tony was buried somewhere on the hillside, his remains were forever lost.  I crawled back up to the newer section of the road, climbed into my van and went home.  There had to be some way to determine if there was a car down there. 

You know when you are trying to remember something and then you can’t? You are trying to think of a word or a name and you are reading a newspaper and there is what you are looking for. My answer came that evening as I was thumbing through a new Harbor Freight catalog that came in the mail.  On one page, up in the top right-hand corner, there were metal detectors for sale.  Would they work?  Worth a try.  A car is a large metal object.  It might.  I went online and ordered two of the most expensive ones listed.  $299 plus handling.  I placed an order and checked the box for overnight shipping.

It was eight p.m. the next evening when UPS delivered my purchases.  After the delivery truck left, I unpacked the metal detectors, explaining that I had a thought about where Big Tony might have ended up and how. Why he and his car had never surfaced.

I didn’t know if the detectors were strong enough to pick through the detritus that had come down in the mud slide.  A car was a large metal object and I was hoping I might get an outline of it.  It would be about six feet wide and twenty feet long. 

Chazzy was excited and wanted to go first thing in the morning to search for it. I said there was no hurry and we would wait for the weather to warm just a little.  In the morning Chazzy took her Subaru and drove over there. I was in the cellar getting a coil of half-inch rope I could use to hang onto while we went down into the ravine.  Delores was in her room speaking on the phone and didn’t hear me. I heard her through the floor, much as I had Chazzy the year before.

“Johnny, my son-in-law thinks he knows what happened to my husband.  If what he is looking for is where he thinks it is, I think we can go forward and have a life together. We should know by this evening. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”  There was a long pause while she listened to the person on the other end of the phone speak.  “Okay, I promise I will call.  I love you too. Bye.”  The Johnny that Delores was speaking to was her boss.  There seemed to be a lot riding on my finding the car later today.

I made it easy for Delores and also Chazzy when she returned.  “Let’s get started.  It will be pretty cool down in the ravine, but I guess you both are anxious to find out if the metal detectors will work or if we can find anything.”

I parked the van where the old road branched off of the new section.  (New twenty-three years ago.)  It had taken me twenty minutes to go down alone last time.  I had run down the old road and went down beside the landslide. This time it took a little longer, because it was quite a bit further.  We went down from where we parked the van, angling toward the end of the slide. It wasn’t as steep by going this way.  I carried the rope and Delores and Chazzy each had one of the metal detectors.

We approached the slope about a hundred feet up from the bottom of the ravine thinking that the car would possibly hang up.  As I had inspected the very bottom before, this made sense to me.  Besides there was a section where the slide had divided and I wanted to inspect that first. I tied the rope to a tree slightly above, which was still standing nearest the slide.  I worked myself out across the face of the talus.

The minute I turned the metal detector on, the detector gave a response.  It was loud and clear.  I moved it around and yes, the buried object could be a car for it was large enough. The place I was working seemed to be mostly rotted trees that had piled up and most of the soil had washed away. You could peer down between some of the trees and trash for a couple of feet.

My wife and her mother were standing on the steep bank waiting for my report. “I think there is a car under there.  Whether it is Big Tony’s or not,  there is no way to tell. It may be a car that was dumped over the bank at some time.  I think our next move would be to talk with the police to see if they will do anything about it.  After all, Big Tony is still missing and several agencies were looking for him.”

There were no questions really answered, but there was a possibility of the major one being resolved at some later date.  We discussed this as we slowly made our way back up the side of the ravine to the van.  It was noon, but we didn’t stop at the house for lunch. We went on by and down to the State Police barracks in West Brattleboro.

All three of us stood waiting for someone to speak to us.  Finally an officer asked what he could do for us.  Delores spoke up.  “Twenty years ago a man went missing in this area.  I’m sure you have his name in your records as the FBI was searching for him at that time.”  Following was a long, lengthy explanation of who, when and where.

Then she introduced me as her son-in-law and said I was the one that had possibly figured out where her husband’s remains might be. Being a local and only living three miles from the barracks for most of my life, carried some weight as to my veracity.

I produced the note with seven items that I had jotted down.

1.   Big Tony sent Delores home on a Thursday, September 4th.
2.  That same day he had given Dad a box of Chazzy’s toys.
3.  Big Tony left the house about ten in the morning of the 5th.
4.  He didn’t get gas at Lepparolli’s.
5.  No trace of him or his car were ever found.
6.  Big Tony’s associates disclaim any knowledge of his disappearance
7.  It was raining hard the day Delores left and for two more days.

To this I added the statements given me by the workman on the Dummerston road crew.  “Two days ago I climbed down and looked the situation over. Thinking about the metal that the car was constructed of, I ordered a metal detector.  Just a couple of hours ago, I used it and there is a large enough metal object trapped in the slide to be a vehicle.  Whether it is the Anthony Smith vehicle, there is no way of telling unless it is excavated.”

“So you want this unknown object excavated on just your suppositions? The way our budget is, I doubt that will ever happen.”

This pissed Chazzy off. I herded Delores and Chazzy out of the police barracks and we sat in the car for a few minutes.  “Let’s try the Sheriff’s Department.  Maybe we will have better luck there.”  We had more interest there, although again no one agreed to do any excavating.  One of the deputies did want to see the site we were talking about.  I took the women home and met the deputy at the junction of the old and new roads. I followed my original path where I had gone down the first time.

He agreed with me that there definitely was a large metal object somewhere under the surface. “This would be damned slow digging.  There are all kinds of trees and branches buried here and who knows how many rocks and boulders would have to be moved.  It looks impossible to me.  You better forget it.”  I didn’t want to forget it, but bowed to the inevitable.

I shook my head when I came in the door at home.  Tears flowed from Delores’ eyes and it was a sad and frustrating evening for us.  “Can’t you do something, Marv?  I hate to think of my husband down there under all of that stuff.”

“What do you think, Chazzy?  We’re both pretty strong. Do you want to try digging for the car?”

“I’d like to. Do you think it possible?”

“Won’t know until we try. I’ll make a list of what I think we will need.  We can cut away the trees and branches.  The stones didn’t look too big from what I could see.”  Delores would be working, so we didn’t share our intentions with her for tomorrow.

The next morning found our van parked a half mile up the road near where there was an easier access, or so we thought.  We were carrying a small chain saw, an ax, a round pointed shovel and the coil of rope to steady ourselves with.  It was rough going just getting to the site. Then we had to climb up to where we had identified the large metal object under the slide.  We spent over an hour from the time we left the van until we got set up.

There was a lot I could do with the saw.  One good thing, it was steep enough so we could fling what we loosened behind us and it would roll or bounce away down the hill. We worked until noon and were so tired we didn’t think we could make it back up to the van. We sat at the bottom of the ravine before leaving.  By this time the sun was over us and it was warm.

Looking back up the hillside, I felt we had accomplished quite a bit.  We were working in the center of the area where we thought the car was buried, cutting a trench three feet wide. There was a lot of material to move.  We kept the trench nearly level, so as we lowered ourselves, that got longer.  It was like cutting a quarter slice of pie on edge into the hillside.  If we had tried to dig directly down to the car, we would have to lift everything out of the hole and we knew this wasn’t possible.

We were going to quit at noon, but we had made so much progress, we decided to work another hour.  By two o’clock both of us were shaking with fatigue.  I was still having to use the saw occasionally, but the chain was completely dulled and I knew I could never sharpen it again. I did have a couple of spares at home, one new and another half worn out.  I would bring both tomorrow.  I also knew I could use a large crowbar to pry with. We didn’t tell Delores what we were up to and when we went to bed early, she figured it was love in the making.

We struggled for two more days.  We were down into the hillside almost nine feet.  The trench where we worked stretched out twelve feet behind us.  We knew we had to be close to our goal.  We had determined what must have stopped the car from going all the way to the bottom.  We came onto a snapped off hemlock tree two feet in diameter down four feet from the surface. It had to be what the car was up against.  We used this tree stub to guide us down.  It was easier digging next to it anyway.

We had done hard physical labor now for three days.  We were tired out and resting at the bottom on a pile of leaves.  “Another hour or quit?”

“Let’s just lay here for awhile.  Why don’t you kiss me?”

“No strength.”

“Even if I do this to you?  Jones, we are too tired when we get home to make love and you have been neglecting me.  I didn’t get married to get neglected.  I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”

“Chazzy, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I’ve known you a year and a half and I have loved every day you have been here.”

“Even when I looked like a freak?”

“Even then. Now I’ll kiss you.”

“But I’m all dirty and sweaty.”

“Adds just a little flavor.  Besides I think it’s kinky when I know your father is just up the hill watching us make out.”

“Well let’s give him a real show.”  An hour later after being satiated and taking a short nap, we climbed the hill again.  Ten minutes later we struck a piece of rusty metal, about three feet from where we thought the car would be.  Brushing the dirt off of it, I followed it back to the upper edge of the tree.  I determined it was the top edge of the front car door that was open. Must be it had sprung open when the car slammed against the tree.

“Let’s dig down beside the door. The door is open so maybe we can see inside.”  Nice plan, but it didn’t work that way.  The car was filled totally with mud that had washed off the mountain.  We continued excavating around the door, not trying to dig anything out of the vehicle. 

Suddenly we exposed a large rubber sole as we neared the bottom of the door. There was some rotted leather attached. Slowly I dug the dirt away from it. When I had it mostly exposed, I cautiously freed it.  It was stuck and I dug around it and underneath.  I could see the boot with a bone sticking out of it!  I pried it with a shovel until it was loose enough to transfer to my jacket. The rest of the bones had to be inside of the car.

Chazzy, who had been watching me, glanced into my eyes.  “The boot is big enough to be a size fourteen isn’t it?  That was dad’s shoe size.  He was really watching us make love wasn’t he?  Jones, what a relief.  Mama will be so happy to know we found him.  Let’s go home and tell her.  I suppose we should call the sheriff as well and report this.”

I was surprised at how calm my wife was.  “Jones, he left me when I was ten years old.  I never have had much feeling for him, because I have mostly forgotten him.  I’m just glad he has been found.  Can we leave all the tools here?  We should leave the leg and the boot here as well until the authorities are notified, but I’m not going to.  We’ll take it with us, okay?”

I guess my wife was a little more pissed than I had been at the state police, because we had been pretty much blown off days before.  She walked into the office with me following her.  With the utmost respect she asked the trooper, “Would you check to see if this boot with leg and foot bones, belong to my father, the long missing Anthony (Big Tony) Smith?  We think the rest of the bones are in the car we uncovered.”  She unfolded my jacket and exposed the boot with the leg bone on the desk.

“Please treat his remains with respect and return them to his wife, Mrs. Delores Smith.  She has been waiting twenty-one years for him to come to her.  Thank you and good day.”  I followed her back out to the van.  Before we reached our driveway, two familiar green and yellow police cars hit their sirens for us to pull to the side so they could go by. I called the Sheriff’s office when we arrived home.  Let the State Police and the Sheriff’s Department fight over jurisdiction.

When Delores arrived sometime later, there was a state police captain waiting to question her.  Chazzy had the foresight to call and inform her mother that we had been successful in finding where Big Tony’s resting place had been for the last twenty-one years.

Big Tony was only above ground six weeks before he was interred in Christ Church Cemetery in Guilford, Vermont.  The funeral itself was quite the media event. Big Tony had been respected by his peers and the family he was connected to came out to show their respect.  As far as I knew, Chazzy, Delores, and myself were the only people directly related.  The funeral was held in the church of his faith in Brattleboro.  Every pew was filled including those seats in the balcony.

There were seven black Cadillacs and Lincolns lined up before the church behind the hearse.  These and various Mercedes, numbering to thirteen more, followed Big Tony from the church out Walnut Street to Main Street. Tags of nine different states were represented.  The procession wound up Putney Road, around the Common and back down the length of Main Street to Guilford.

The funeral was held on December 1st.  Yes, that was our 1st anniversary.  Fitting, don’t you think. Chazzy apprised me of one fact.  The day we discovered Big Tony was also the day she became pregnant. We joked about it at the time, us inviting Big Tony to be present at our child’s conception, not knowing at the time his bones lay close by.

There was an online website for those friends and associates to leave their condolences to the widow and the daughter.  It read as a who’s who in the world that Big Tony had been a part of.  Many promised that if either ever needed anything to contact them and it would be granted. When the memory book was printed, Delores purchased a copy and sent it to her brother Mortimer.

There was a short missive included. “Mortimer, please take note.  You warned me one time that you had contacts. This is just to show you I have some as well. There are no hard feelings about the recent happenings between us.  I do want to thank you for introducing me to Big Tony thirty-four years ago. For a few short years he did make me very happy. Regards, Delores.

---

We did make division of the diamonds and the money.  Delores married the shopkeeper where she worked and went to him with some assets.  How much she has told him about her former husband, I have no idea and it isn’t any of my business.  I suspect he had full knowledge as he must have read the newspaper accounts and saw the funeral procession go down Main Street.

“Chazzy, what else do you have in that hard case you brought with you the day you arrived?  We have been married two years now and are going to have another baby.”

Chazzy retrieved it from under the bed.  This always seemed personal to her and I had never looked in it. She opened it now, taking out more copies of her time as the film monster, Jan Mortimer, and several matches she had when she performed as Gladis Shadis.  She hesitated before showing what else it contained.

“Jones,  do you remember when I came, I said I illustrated children’s books. I have tried to write some on my own, but have never shown them to anyone. You are a writer, and I’m sure my efforts aren’t up to your work.”

“Why don’t you let me decide that?  Show me.” The fact was when I saw the stories, they were the work of an amateur, but I could see the point she was trying to make in each little story. The illustrations were superb. I could help meld the two together so once more I had a project that interfered with my writing. I took it on gladly.  The rewards were great!

I’m still writing mystery novels when I’m not playing with my three kids. I still wonder at it all. The screen play I wrote with Chazzy in mind was sold.  However, she will not be one of the characters in it.  She is too busy making a life for her family.

The hills of Vermont gave up the remains of Big Tony, as well as some of his assets.  Let us hope it doesn’t give up the remains of those nine quiet items my father buried more than twenty years ago.  Best be forgotten!

The End